Passing of Paolo Muiesan, Professor of Surgery

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Paolo Muiesan, Professor of Surgery.

Paolo was an innovative HPB and transplant surgeon and cofounder of the Division of Transplant Surgery of the UEMS.
He will be remembered as a Transplant Surgeon in the fullest of meanings, energetic, totally devoted to his mission of saving other people’s health. This done with relentless enthusiasm, a true role model for everybody. He was a superb surgeon, one of those who does “the tough cases”, many of these in children. Literally saving thousands of lives . He has been working very hard for decades, travelling the whole globe, teaching hundreds of transplant surgeons, contributing to the birth of new living donor transplant programs in countries like India and Pakistan.

He graduated in Medicine at the University of Brescia. His education continued at the University of California Davis as resident in General Surgery and then further specialized in Vascular Surgery at the University of Milan. He trained in adult and pediatric liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery at King′s College Hospital in London. To complete his training in HPB Surgery and Liver Transplantation he visited the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Western Ontario in 1996 and Kyoto University Transplant Centre in 1998.
He became Consultant Surgeon in HPB Surgery and Transplantation at King’s College in 1998 and moved to Birmingham Queen Elizabeth and Children’s Hospitals ten years later. He visited the Asan Medical Centre in Seoul in 2008 and 2009 in preparation to start the Living Donor Liver Transplant program in Birmingham and attended several courses on laparoscopic liver surgery. He became Professor in HPB Surgery and Transplantation at University of Birmingham in 2015.
Professor Muiesan lead the living donor, auxiliary, domino, and DCD liver transplantation programs in Birmingham and was also devoted to experimental and clinical research in liver resection for cholangiocarcinoma, central liver resection, ALPPS and ex-situ, ante-situ liver resection and machine perfusion for organ preservation.
He served as Chair of the European Liver Intestine Transplant Association (ELITA), Council Member of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), Chair of the pediatric committee of the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) and ILTS Council member. He was also member of the European Surgical Association in 2016.

For fifteen years Paolo has been representing ESOT within the UEMS Division of Transplant Surgery. Always positive, stimulating and ready to help solve any problem with a very wise approach; he once wrote the japanese word “nankurunaisa”. I asked him the meaning and he replied “with time everything gets sorted out”. This was his way of approaching life. With the strongest ever belief that everything is going to be sorted out at some point, teaching us all how to de-escalate difficult situations, with determination and perseverance.
With the same perseverance he managed to come back to Italy, having been awarded the prestigious role of Professor of Surgery at the University of Florence in 2018, from where he finally moved to Milan in 2021, to become Director of the Liver Transplant Programme of the University of Milan at Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico.

Paolo will remain in the history books as one of the greatest transplant surgeons of our generation. We will miss his smile, and the friendly attitude he had for each person he would meet.

Our deepest condolences go to his family.
May he rest in the Peace of the Lord.

On behalf of the UEMS Division of Transplant Surgery
Jacopo Romagnoli & Allan Rasmussen