Kambiz Etesami, MD, FACS, Named Division Chief of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has appointed Kambiz Etesami, MD, FACS, as division chief of Abdominal Organ Transplantation. In this role, Dr. Etesami will oversee CHLA’s nationally renowned liver, kidney and pancreatic islet transplant programs and will continue advancing the Division’s commitment to exceptional patient care, research innovation and top-tier education. He previously served as CHLA’s director of Abdominal Organ Transplantation and surgical director of the liver and kidney transplant programs.

“Since joining CHLA in 2017, Dr. Etesami has helped energize the pediatric liver and kidney transplant programs, driving growth in volume and nationally recognized outcomes, as well as performing the youngest infant liver transplant in the Western U.S. and CHLA’s first concurrent pediatric split-liver transplants,” said Mark Krieger, MD, surgeon-in-chief at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We could not be more thrilled to have Dr. Etesami in this new role as division chief, as he continues to cement Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ reputation as one of the preeminent pediatric abdominal transplant centers in the country.”

Dr. Etesami also serves in the Abdominal Transplant Division at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He completed his undergraduate, graduate and medical training in New York City, including earning his medical degree from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, and then completed a multiorgan abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at Georgetown University.

He is an active member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and is an associate fellow with the American College of Surgeons. His professional interests include advancing surgical techniques – including living donation and technical variant grafts, outcomes-based research, machine perfusion and xenotransplantation – with a focus on expanding organ availability. He is deeply committed to surgical education, having trained numerous fellows and residents who themselves now serve in leadership roles throughout the nation.

CHLA’s pediatric Kidney Transplant Program is one of the most established, longest-running programs in the nation. CHLA’s Liver Transplant Program has the best pediatric liver transplant survival rates in the country, leading the nation in one- and three-year liver graft and patient survival rates according to 2025 data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Both the kidney and liver transplant programs excel in performing living donor transplants for children. CHLA’s expertise in living donor transplants is a major reason why CHLA’s median wait time for a child to receive a transplant is shorter than the national average.

CHLA is also a leader in pancreatic islet transplantation and was the first hospital in Southern California to perform total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation (TPIAT) for children. CHLA is one of only two centers on the West Coast, and among the few nationwide, offering this innovative procedure, which significantly reduces pain and improves quality of life for children with chronic pancreatitis.

Information for this article was sourced from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.