Transplant Surgeon Diego Martin di Sabato, M.D. Joins the MUSC Department of Surgery

We are delighted to announce that Diego Martin di Sabato, M.D., a multiorgan transplant surgeon, has joined the MUSC Department of Surgery. He assumes the role of Associate Professor and P.K. Baliga Endowed Chair in Solid Organ Transplant, effective September 1, 2024.

In his new role, he will serve as the Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation for both adult and pediatric patients at MUSC, a position that will allow him to make a significant impact on patient care. He will also be instrumental in developing a robust Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT) program and working with multidisciplinary teams to serve our Transplant Oncology practice, the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program, and other LDLT indications.

Dr. di Sabato joins us from the University of Chicago School of Medicine, where, since 2019, he has served as the Co-director of the Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT) Program. During his tenure at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, he relaunched the LDLT program after a 5-year hiatus, building it into one of the busiest LDLT programs in the region, with surgical outcomes that have met or exceeded national standards. As a pediatric transplant surgeon, he integrated live donor liver transplants and established a multidisciplinary approach to pediatric liver diseases, with excellent outcomes considering the complex population. The impact of the LDLT program now contributes to more than half of the pediatric liver transplants, including for acute liver failure in children, as well as an essential component of their novel Transplant Oncology program.

Dr. di Sabato is exceedingly well trained, having completed two fellowships in Transplantation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He was also a visiting surgeon at the world’s busiest living donor liver transplant program, Asan Medical Center, in Seoul, South Korea, the first center in the world to perform living donor liver transplantation.  

Along with his dedication to his clinical work, Dr. di Sabato is passionate about continued research to improve care for transplant patients. Currently, he is investigating liver recovery options in order to increase the number of viable organs available for patients needing a liver transplant.