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?
                                    Natalie Smith - Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, 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: Dmitri Bezinover - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 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