A Transplant Timeline

Since the mid-1600s, human beings have been hard at work repairing their bodies using "spare parts" from a variety of sources.

The following timeline of innovations and breakthroughs is compiled from information provided by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the Donor Network of Arizona, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University.

1668: First successful bone graft. A human cranium is repaired using bone from a dog's skull. The procedure is documented by Job Van Meeneren of Holland.

1674: Noted Dutch biologist Antoni Van Leeuwenhock documents the human bone structure.

1822: First documented autograft. This is a transplant of tissue from one area of a patient's body to another area.

1869: First documented allograft. Allografting involves transplanting tissue from one patient to another. Accomplished by Swiss surgeon Jacques Louis Reverdin.

1880: First clinical bone autograft, by William Macewen of Scotland.

1949: U.S. Navy establishes first U.S. Tissue Bank at Bethesda, Maryland.

1954: First successful kidney transplant, accomplished by Dr. Joseph E. Murray, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston.

1963: First liver transplant, by Dr. Thomas Starzl of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado.

1963: First lung transplant, by Dr. James Hardy, University of Mississippi, Jackson.

1966: First successful pancreas transplant, by Drs. William Kelly and Richard Lillehei, University of Minnesota.

1967: First heart transplant, by Dr. Christian Barnard, Groote Schur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.

1968: First successful heart transplant, by Dr. Norman Shumway, Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, California.

1976: American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB)is established.

1978: Introduction of Cyclosporine as a major immunosuppressant. This increases the success rate of implants by helping prevent rejection of donated organs.

1981: First successful heart-lung transplant, by Dr. Bruce Reitz, of Stanford University Hospital.

1982: Patient Barney Clark receives the first permanent artificial heart, at the University of Utah.

1983: First successful single lung transplant, by Dr. Joel Cooper, Toronto Lung Transplant Group, Toronto General Hospital, Canada.

1984: The National Organ Transplant Act is signed into law, establishing a national system in the U.S. for matching organ donors and recipients.

1986: First successful double lung transplant, accomplished by Dr. Joel Cooper, Toronto Lung Transplant Group, Toronto General Hospital, Canada.

1987: Federal law requires hospitals to approach relatives of brain-dead patients about organ donation.

1989: First successful transplant of a liver donated by a living person. Accomplished by Dr. Christoph Broelsch, University of Chicago Medical Center.

1990: First sucessful transplant of a lung donated by a living person. Accomplished by Dr. Vaughn A. Starnes, Stanford University Medical Center.

1992: First transplant of a baboon liver to a human, performed at the Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pennsylvania.

1993: The Federal Food and Drug Administration initiates regulation of all U.S. tissue banks.