George V. Mazariegos, MD

Immunosuppression withdrawal, long term transplant outcomes

Dr. Mazariegos is an active pediatric liver and intestinal transplant surgeon. His main interests are focused on the care of pediatric patients who have liver and/or intestinal disease requiring transplantation. He also specializes in treatment of adult and pediatric patients who develop acute liver failure and who may require specialized liver support therapies until they recover or until donor organs are available.

Dr. Mazariegos is leading clinical efforts to evaluate lowering or withdrawal of immunosuppression in long term liver transplant recipients in order to maximize quality of life and minimize post transplant complications. In collaboration with colleagues at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute http://sti.upmc.com, Dr. Mazariegos is conducting analysis of immunologic characteristics of patients successfully withdrawn from immunosuppression. This work is being used to prospectively characterize patients who may be candidates for less immunosuppression. Dr. Mazariegos is also involved in the evaluation and development of artificial and biologic liver support therapies for patients with acute liver failure and as a co-investigator in Studies of Pediatric Liver Transplantation, an international pediatric liver transplant registry.

He is the principal investigator in the International Solid Organ Transplant Tolerance Registry (http://transplant-tolerance.org/), an international multi-center registry of patients successfully withdrawn from immunosuppression. He is also co-investigator of Medical Adherence after Liver Transplantation (MALT), a multicenter study evaluating adherence after liver transplantation.