VCU Health Achieves Nation's First Fully Robotic Living-Donor Liver Transplant

A Pioneering Medical Achievement

In a significant advancement for transplant medicine, the VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center in Richmond, Virginia, successfully performed the nation's first fully robotic living-donor liver transplant in March 2025. This landmark procedure, which involved recipient Quanda Jordan and living donor Rick Ridpath, was recently highlighted by U.S. News & World Report, underscoring its importance in the medical community. The surgery represents a new era in liver transplantation, promising improved outcomes and expanded access for patients in need.

The Robotic Edge in Transplantation

The groundbreaking transplant was executed using the advanced da Vinci 5 robotic system, allowing surgeons to operate with exceptional precision through tiny incisions. This fully robotic approach builds upon VCU Health's earlier achievement in January 2025, when it became the first center in the world to use the da Vinci 5 system for a living donor liver retrieval (hepatectomy). The surgical team was led by Dr. Seung Duk Lee, the Hume-Lee Transplant Center's liver transplant surgical director and Quanda Jordan's surgeon. According to Dr. Lee, 'Robotic technology makes complex liver transplants less invasive and safer — and it has the potential to expand access for the growing number of patients who can't afford to wait.'

Benefits for Donors and Recipients

The adoption of fully robotic techniques in living-donor liver transplantation offers numerous advantages over traditional open surgery, benefiting both donors and recipients. These include:

• Smaller incisions, leading to reduced pain and scarring.
• Greater precision and control during the procedure.
• Reduced blood loss and lower risk of complications.
• Shorter hospital stays and significantly faster recovery times.

For Quanda Jordan, recovery was remarkably swift; she was reportedly walking just one day after surgery and discharged in record time. This less invasive method is also expected to encourage more individuals to become living donors, addressing the critical shortage of organs.

Pioneering a New Standard

The VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center has a long-standing reputation for innovation in transplant surgery. It is recognized as one of the nation's top liver transplant programs by volume and has been at the forefront of robotic surgery for nearly a decade, having performed Virginia's first robotic kidney transplant. Dr. David Bruno, Director of Hume-Lee Transplant Center, emphasized that such complex procedures require both cutting-edge technology and a dedicated team of experts. This latest milestone not only sets a new benchmark for what is possible in liver transplantation but also offers hope for the estimated 4.5 million adults affected by liver disease in the U.S., and the more than 9,000 people currently on the liver transplant waiting list.