Our Mission

Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D.
Professor of Surgery
Director, Malú & Carlos Alvarez Center for Transplantation, Hepatobiliary Surgery & Innovation
Carlos and Malú Alvarez Distinguished University Chair Ashbel Smith Professorship in Surgery

“Success is dependent on a technically precise implantation, carefully balanced alteration of the immune system, collaboration between patient and physician regarding medical care and lack of recurrence of the initiating disease. The Malú & Carlos Alvarez Center for Transplantation, Hepatobiliary Surgery & Innovation strives to provide state-of-the-art care in a multidisciplinary and patient centered manner.  We strive to shorten the waiting list to transplantation through multiple innovative approaches including living donor liver and kidney transplants.  Our center combines this high quality of complex care with ongoing investigation of the mechanisms of rejection and of diseases leading to recurrent organ dysfunction. Our ultimate goal is the illumination of knowledge that will allow prevention of the organ failure requiring transplantation.”

The success of the Malú & Carlos Alvarez Center for Transplantation, Hepatobiliary Surgery & Innovation at UT Health San Antonio depends on the members of the multidisciplinary team who care for patients before and after their transplants. The center employs extremely talented, competent and dedicated transplant surgeons, physicians, coordinators and nurses who follow the patients through their journeys from illness to recovery.

No other field has had a more dramatic impact on the practice of modern medicine than organ transplantation.

For patients afflicted with diseases that result in organ failure, replacement of that body part offers renewed quality of life and extended life expectancy. The success of transplantation rests on the talents of highly motivated and focused multidisciplinary teams, merging science and technology to the fullest extent. The faculty and staff at the Malú & Carlos Alvarez Center for Transplantation, Hepatobiliary Surgery & Innovation at UT Health San Antonio are devoted to take on the challenges patients with organ failure face, and we will work to better the lives of our patients.