Samsung Medical Center
| Republic of Korea | Turkey | Austria | |
| Liver transplant | from $120,000 | from $45,000 | ≈ $140,000 |
Professor Lee Seok-gu is a leading liver transplant surgeon at Myongji Hospital. He has performed about 2,000 liver transplants. He achieved Korea’s first transfusion-free liver transplant. He performed hepatocyte transplantation in a one-month-old infant. He led the first clinical use of a bioartificial liver for acute liver failure. He also performed living-donor transplants in Egypt and trained teams in Vietnam.
He is Professor of Surgery at Myongji Hospital and former Director of the Organ Transplantation Center at Samsung Medical Center. He earned his MD and MSc from Seoul National University and his PhD from the Catholic University of Korea. He completed a fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard and transplant training at Johns Hopkins. He served as president of three national societies in transplantation and pediatric surgery. His honors include the Chong Kun Dang Award, the Pfizer Clinical Medicine Award, and the Astellas Investigator Award. He has 447 publications and 13 book chapters.
Specializes in liver transplants with advanced training from South Korea and the US, recognized for excellence in research and clinical practice.
Dr. Dong Wook Choi is a professor and hepato-biliary pancreatic surgery specialist at Samsung Medical Center. He completed a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in the USA. Dr. Choi also received training at Kyoto University College of Medicine in Japan. He focuses on complex oncology cases, specifically pancreatic cancer and liver conditions.
Written by Veronika Kazina
Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) are the premier liver transplantation hubs in South Korea. These centers lead the world in living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) with one-year survival rates exceeding 98% for complex surgical cases.
Bookimed Expert Insight: While many global centers prioritize deceased-donor transplants, South Korean clinics have mastered the living-donor technique due to high domestic demand. Asan Medical Center alone manages 11,800 outpatients daily. This massive volume allows surgeons to refine specialized protocols that result in significantly shorter waiting periods for international patients compared to Western hospitals.
Patient Consensus: Patients value how mature and routine the living-donor culture is in Korea, often allowing surgeries to be scheduled within weeks. International visitors frequently recommend Samsung and Asan for their superior English-language support and coordinator availability.
International patients can receive a liver transplant in South Korea strictly through Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT). South Korean law reserves deceased donor organs for citizens. Patients must bring a compatible living donor, typically a relative, and obtain approval from the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS).
Bookimed Expert Insight: While base costs range from $120,000 to $130,000, international cases often incur 20% to 30% higher expenses than local subsidized rates. Choosing JCI-accredited centers like Severance Hospital or Samsung Medical Center ensures digitalized coordination, which is vital for managing long-term immunosuppression with your home country doctors.
Patient Consensus: Patients emphasize that success depends on early, direct contact with hospital transplant departments rather than general services. Finding a dedicated medical translator is also cited as essential for navigating the complex KONOS approval process and visa requirements.
Patients should plan for a 40 to 90 day stay in South Korea for a liver transplant. This timeframe includes 10 days of pre-operative compatibility testing, a 3 to 6 week hospitalization period, and several weeks of essential outpatient monitoring for rejection and infection.
Bookimed Expert Insight: Data from Asan Medical Center, which handles 45% of Korea's heart transplants and maintains a 90% organ transplant success rate, suggests a significant experience gap. While many clinics offer transplants, large centers like Severance or Asan have the infrastructure to manage the intensive 48-hour monitoring cycles required post-discharge.
Patient Consensus: Patients emphasize booking long-term lodging like service apartments near the hospital immediately. Many travelers suggest building a 2-week buffer into travel plans to account for slower-than-expected recovery or necessary visa extensions.
Living liver donors in South Korea must be healthy adults aged 19 to 60 with matching or compatible blood types. First to third-degree relatives, spouses, and friends are eligible. Foreign donors must typically be second-degree relatives and undergo strict ethical screening via the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS).
Bookimed Expert Insight: While many US centers hesitate with different blood types, Korean hospitals like Asan Medical Center maintain a 90% success rate for organ transplants. They frequently perform ABO-incompatible transplants using advanced desensitization protocols. This makes finding a donor significantly easier for international families who previously faced rejection due to blood type mismatches.
Patient Consensus: Donors report a rigorous screening process where psychological clearance is non-negotiable to ensure voluntary consent. Most advise preparing for 4–6 weeks of post-operative fatigue despite the rapid 2-week clinical evaluation timeline.