Physician’s Profile

Tomoaki Kato, MD
Division of Abdominal Organ Transplant Surgery
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Tomoaki Kato, M.D., is a noted pioneer in multiple-organ transplantation, pediatric and adult liver transplantation. Dr. Kato is Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and is a professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Kato is known for unique and innovative surgeries for adults and children, including a six-organ transplant; a procedure called APOLT (auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation) that resuscitates a failing liver by attaching a partial donor liver, making immunosuppressant drugs unnecessary and the first successful human partial bladder transplantation involving the transplant of two kidneys together with ureters connected to a patch of the donor bladder. In a highly publicized case, he led the first reported removal and re-implantation, or auto-transplantation, of six organs to excise a hard-to-reach abdominal tumor.
Previously the director of pediatric liver and gastrointestinal transplant and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Kato received his medical degree from the Osaka University Medical School in Japan and received his residency training in surgery at Osaka University Hospital and Itami City Hospital in Hyogo, Japan. He completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, in Miami, Florida, where he was subsequently appointed to the surgical faculty in 1997, and promoted to full professor in 2007. He served as a surgeon and senior leader of the liver and transplantation center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, beginning in 1997, and at University of Miami Hospital (previously Cedars Medical Center), beginning in 2004. Dr. Kato is a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations, and the author or co-author of more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
- Abdominal Organ Transplantation
- Abdominal Wall Transplantation
- Auto Transplantation
- Auxiliary Transplant
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- Ex-Vivo Resection
- Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (Fibrolamellar HCC)
- General Surgery
- Hepatobiliary Surgery
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
- Intestinal Transplant
- Liver Transplant, Pediatric
- Liver Transplantation
- Multivisceral Transplantation
- Organ Transplant, Pediatric
- Pediatric Liver Cancer
- Pediatric Surgery
- Sarcoma
- Small Bowel Resection
- Small Bowel Transplant, Pediatric
- Small Bowel Transplantation
- Surgical Oncology
- Transplant Surgery
- Transplant Surgery, Pediatric
2009-2020 New York Magazine's Best Doctors
2015 Global Alumni Fellow, Osaka University
2014 Nobility in Science Award, Sarcoma Foundation of Americas
2007 Humanitarian of the Year, Consulate General of Israel in Miami
Young?Dong Yu, Regina Hwang, Karim J. Halazun, Adam Griesemer, Tomoaki Kato, Jean Emond, Benjamin Samstein.Whose Liver Is It Anyway? Two Centers Participating in One Living Donor Transplantation 2019;25:1710-1713
Shilpa Ravella, Peter Liou, Monica Velasco, Alycea Harrison, Tomoaki Kato, Mercedes Martinez. Nutritional Challenges in Patients After Intestinal Autotransplantation and Ex Vivo Surgery. Volume43, Issue2 February 2011 Pages 245-251
Human Intestinal Allografts Contain Functional Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells that Are Maintained by a Circulating Pool. JianingFu, JulienZuber, MercedesMartinez, BrittanyShonts, AleksandarObradovic, HuiWang1Sai-pingLau, AmyXia, Elizabeth E.Waffarn, KristjanaFrangaj, Thomas M.Savage, Michael T.Simpson, SuxiaoYang, Xinzheng V.Guo,MichelleMiron, TakashiSenda, KortneyRogers, AdeebRahman, MeganSykes. Cell Stem Cell 2019; 24:197-198
Samstein B, Griesemer A, Halazun K, Kato T, Guarrera JV, Cherqui D, Emond JC. Pure Laparoscopic Donor Hepatectomies: Ready for Widespread Adoption? Ann Surg 2018;268:602-609
Przybyszewski EM, Verna EC, Lobritto SJ, Martinez M, Vittorio JM, Fox AN, Samstein B, Kato T, Griesemer AD, Emond JC. Durable Clinical and Immunologic Advantage of Living Donor Liver Transplantation in Children. Transplantation 2018;102:953-960