Rolling admission · Istanbul · Delivered in English
Follow liver transplantation within a university hospital's transplant programme in Istanbul — candidate and donor evaluation, the multidisciplinary meeting, theatre where scheduled, intensive care and follow-up — with no operation, organ offer or donor type promised.
What you see depends on the department's clinical calendar during your placement; the list below describes the department's usual scope, not a guaranteed programme.
Liver transplantation is considered for decompensated cirrhosis, for hepatocellular carcinoma within accepted selection criteria, for acute liver failure and for selected metabolic and cholestatic diseases. Severity scores such as MELD estimate short-term mortality and help to prioritise, but listing also weighs cardiopulmonary fitness, portopulmonary hypertension, kidney function, frailty, infection, cancer history and psychosocial support, including sustained abstinence where the disease is alcohol-related. The hepatologist, surgeon and anaesthetist each test a different part of that question, and observers hear the debate when a borderline candidate is discussed.
Deceased-donor livers are allocated under rules outside the transplant team's control, so their timing cannot be planned. Living donation changes the question: the donor is a healthy person accepting an operation for someone else's benefit, so donor safety takes precedence. Imaging assesses liver volume, so that both the graft and the remnant are large enough, and the arterial, portal and biliary anatomy. Medical and psychological evaluation, informed consent and ethical review follow, and part of the meeting's work is recognising when living donation is not appropriate.
After implantation, the intensive care team watches early graft function through clinical markers, coagulation and liver tests, checks vascular patency on ultrasound and manages bleeding, kidney injury and infection. On the ward and in clinic, immunosuppression is tuned to balance rejection against infection and kidney toxicity, biliary complications are investigated, and recurrence of the original disease is monitored. Within one to four weeks an observer can follow these stages in different patients; the fellowship allows a longer view across the programme.
Unlike the organ transplantation department page, which covers liver and kidney programmes together, this page concentrates on the liver pathway. Hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery covers resection rather than replacement of the liver, and kidney transplantation has its own page.
Graduate physicians and students in their clinical years interested in hepatology, transplant surgery or transplant anaesthesia and intensive care, who want to see how a liver programme connects evaluation, theatre and follow-up.
Surgeons and hepatologists with a specialist qualification who state liver transplantation as their interest within the organ transplantation department, for extended observation of selection, operative and post-transplant practice across a full clinical cycle.
Both routes are strictly observational: observers attend theatre and clinic without patient contact, do not scrub or assist, and are not assessed on any procedure.
| Clinical Observership | Clinical Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1, 2 or 4 weeks (extension possible on request) | 12 to 24 months, agreed with the host department |
| Who it is for | Medical students in clinical years and graduate physicians from outside Turkey | Recognised specialists and family physicians seeking advanced exposure beyond standard specialty training |
| Format | Full-time, strictly observational — outpatient clinics, operating theatre, ward rounds, case discussions | Extended observational attachment to one department: daily practice, service structure and specific techniques |
| Certificate | Certificate of attendance issued by the host hospital and signed by its Medical Director | Certificate on completion issued under the accreditation of the affiliated university school of medicine |
| Start | Rotations typically begin on a Monday; dates are agreed individually | Start date planned around the date you request and the department's capacity |
One online application for both routes. State Liver Transplantation as your focus in your objectives; ATDERA reviews the file and prepares it for the Organ Transplantation department, then replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
Already started? The application page picks up where you left off.
ATDERA Global Limited (Companies House No. 17173428, registered in England and Wales) coordinates this programme for a university teaching hospital in Istanbul. ATDERA is not a hospital and does not provide clinical care; admission decisions and certificates are the host hospital's.
One online application covers both routes and all twenty-one specialties — details, programme choice and documents in five short steps. ATDERA reviews the file and replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
