Transplantation and Surgical Immunology – Transplant Surgery
The transplant program at ECU Health Medical Center – in collaboration with faculty from East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, ECU Physicians and Eastern Nephrology Associates – has the largest pancreas transplant program in North Carolina and was the first program to perform a single port donor nephrectomy and a robotic donor nephrectomy.
The program’s first kidney transplant procedure was performed in 1981 by Dr. Walter Pories, founding chair of ECU’s Department of Surgery, and Dr. Frank Thomas, a heart and kidney transplant surgeon. Dr. Thomas and Dr. Paul Cunningham also performed the first pancreas transplants in the state of North Carolina.