First human bladder transplant performed at UCLA

A UCLA Health surgical team has performed the first-in-human bladder transplant. 

The surgery was successfully completed at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on May 4, 2025. The team was led by Dr. Nima Nassiri, a urologic transplant surgeon and director of the UCLA Vascularized Composite Bladder Allograft Transplant Program, with assistance from Dr. Inderbir Gill, founding executive director of USC Urology.

"Bladder transplantation has been Dr. Nassiri's principal academic focus since we recruited him to the UCLA faculty several years ago," said Dr. Mark Litwin, UCLA Urology Chair and professor in the UCLA Fielding School's Department of Health Policy Management. "It is incredibly gratifying to see him take this work from the laboratory to human patients at UCLA, which operates the busiest and most successful solid-organ transplant program in the western United States."

Read the UCLA Health release.