ILTS & SATA Joint Meeting 2026

Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation 

Date: October 16, 2026
Location: University of San Diego, ACTRI Auditorium - First floor, 9300 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92037

Program: 2026 ILTS/SATA Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation 

7:15 am – 7:50 am       Registration
7:50 am – 8:00 am       Welcome and Introduction
8:00 am – 8:55 am       Optimization of Intraoperative Hemodynamics
                                      Moderators: Marina Moguilevitch - Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA
                                      Eric Tzeng - University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
8:00 am – 8:15 am        Postreperfusion Syndrome: Do we need a new Definition?
                                      Cara Crouch – University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA
8:15 am – 8:30 am        Vasoplegic Syndrome in Liver Disease: Mechanisms, Timing, and Therapeutic Options
                                      Michael Bokoch - University of California San Francisco, CA, USA
8:30 am – 8:45am         Optimizing Intraoperative Portal Perfusion: Does It Matter for Outcomes?
                                      Vanessa Bou Sleiman - Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
8:45 am – 8:55 am        Discussion
8:55 am – 9:15 am       Break
9:15 am – 10:10 am     Leadership and Education in Transplant Anesthesiology
                                      Moderators: David Rosenfeld - Mayo Clinic Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, USA
                                      Brent Boettcher - Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
9:15 am – 9:30 am        How did transplant anesthesia prepare me to be a leader in anesthesiology
                                      Tetsuro Sakai - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
9:30 am – 9:45 am        Innovations in fellowship education
                                      Patrick Maffucci - Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
9:45 am – 10:10 am      Anesthesiology Fellowship in the new reality
                                      Christina Nguyen-Buckley – University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
10:00 am – 10:10 am    Discussion
10:10 am – 10:30 am   Break
10:30 am – 11:30 am   Presentation of the ILTS Cardiac Special Interest Group
                                      Moderators: Ramon Sanchez - University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
                                      Ryan Chadha - Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, FL, USA      
10:30 am – 10:50 am    Rethinking Preoperative Cardiovascular Evaluation in Liver Transplant Candidates
                                       Alexandra Anderson - Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN, USA
10:50 am – 11:10 am    Stress Testing, CT Angiography, and Invasive Evaluation in Liver Transplant Candidates
                                      Torres Barba – University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
10:50 am – 11:10 am    Right ventricular dysfunction and LT: something to be worried
                                      Zachary Sesonsky – Yale, New Haven, CT, USA
11:10 am – 11:20 am    Discussion
11:20 am – 1:00 pm     Lunch Break and Workshops
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm       Case Presentations
                                      Moderators: Dieter Adelmann - University of California San Francisco, CA, USA
                                      Eva Rivas - Clinic Barcelona, Spain
1:00 pm – 1:30 pm        Acute liver failure and liver transplant after the recent yellow fever outbreak in Brazil
                                      Roberta Figueiredo Vieira - Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm        Spinal anesthesia for pain management of LT recipients
                                      Konstantin Balonov - Tufts University Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
2:00 pm – 2:15 pm       Break
2:15 pm – 3:15 pm       Pro/Con debate
                                      Moderators: Marina Gitman - University of Miami, FL, USA
                                      Gurmukh Sahota - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2:15 pm – 2:35 pm        Pro: Every Liver Transplant Can Be Managed with Plasma-Based Transfusion only
                                      Kunal Karamchandani – University of Texas, Houston, Tx, USA
2:35 pm – 2:55 pm        Con: Plasma Is Obsolete—Factor Concentrates Should Be the Standard of Care 
                                      Cale Kassel - University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, USA
2:55 pm – 3:10 pm        Discussion
3:10 pm – 3:20 pm       Break
3:20 pm – 4:15 pm       Liver Transplantation Is Only the Beginning: Navigating Postoperative Challenges
                                      Moderators: Andrew Gold- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
                                      Ranjit Deshpande - Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
3:20 pm – 3:35 pm        How to balance sepsis, immunosuppression and rejection
                                      Fuat Saner - King Faisal Specialized Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
3:35 pm – 3:50 pm        Defining Graft Dysfunction: Why This Matters for Outcomes & Retransplant Decisions
                                      Aleah Brubaker – University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
3:50 pm – 4:05 pm        Acute Alcoholic Hepatitis: Do Outcomes and Relapse Risk Change How We Transplant?
                                      Pranab Barman - University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
4:05 pm – 4:15 pm        Discussion
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm       Future Directions
                                      Moderator: Emma Smith - University of California, San Diego, CA, USA 
                                      Scott Cabaniss Smith - University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
4:15 pm – 4:30 pm        TEE certification for Liver Transplant Anesthesiology
                                      Dmitri Bezinover - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
4:30 pm – 4:45 pm        Address of ILTS president
                                      Wojciech Polak - Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
4:45 pm – 5:00 pm        Address of SATA president
                                      Lorenzo DeMarchi - MedStar-Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA
4:45 pm – 5:00 pm        Closing Remarks
                                      Gebhard Wagener - Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA