When did Thomas Starzl perform the first liver transplant?

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Kidney transplant — transplant British surgeon Andrew Ready flushing a donated kidney during a transplant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, England, 2006.

Thomas Starzl performed the first human liver transplant in 1963.1

Progress in this field was initially slower than in other areas of surgery due to the inherent complexity of the liver and the lack of supplemental therapies—such as the artificial kidney used in kidney transplantation—to support patients before and after the procedure.1