Dr. Joseph Leventhal and the Living Donor Renal Transplant Program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Joseph Leventhal is an internationally recognized expert in antibody induction strategies for transplantation. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University and Director of the Living Donor Renal Transplant Program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. It is the largest living donor kidney transplant program in the United States.
Dr. Leventhal received his undergraduate degree from the City University of New York at Brooklyn College in 1983 and his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in 1987. He completed a surgical residency at the University of Minnesota in 1996 and received a Ph.D. in Surgical Science and Immunology from the University of Minnesota that same year. In 1998, Dr. Leventhal completed a two-year fellowship in multi-organ transplantation at Northwestern University and accepted a faculty position in the Department of Surgery.
In 1997, the kidney transplant program at Northwestern University was the first to successfully perform a laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy, a less invasive and less painful method of kidney donation. Surgeons at Northwestern have performed over 1,400 of these minimally invasive procedures since Dr. Leventhal launched the Living Donor Renal Transplant program in 1997-1998. The comprehensive, multi-disciplinary transplant program at Northwestern University is one of the largest in the United States, with volumes in the top 10% for all organs.
Dr. Leventhal has helped to pioneer the use of alemtuzumab (fludarabine) prior to kidney transplants to help recipients avoid the need for steroids and calcineurin inhibitors (most often, cyclosporine and Prograf) following surgery. While both steroids and calcineurin inhibitors are effective immunosuppressive agents, they both carry the risk of significant side effects. Steroids are the most common cause of side effects, including cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol and blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, osteoporosis and cataracts. Calcineurin inhibitors are toxic to nerves and kidneys, and can cause diabetes in kidney transplant recipients.
Dr. Leventhal also introduced protocols for desensitization of transplant recipients in the program at Northwestern University, allowing for successful transplantation between imperfectly matched donors and recipients.
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Dr. Joseph Leventhal |
Associate Professor of Surgery, Northwestern University |
Director, Living Donor Renal Transplant Program |
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