Dr Rainer Gruessner: Helping Those in Need

As a renowned transplant surgeon, Dr Rainer Gruessner continues to provide the exemplary surgical care, treatment and service people deserve to live longer and healthier lives. 

Appointed in 2007 as the head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Gruessner has provided years of expert surgical management; skills that are built on many years of high-quality education, experience and research.

Often known as a surgeon of “firsts”, Dr Rainer Gruessner has been fortunate to have directed or participated in many new and innovative surgical procedures. Amongst these are the first standardized technique for living donor intestinal transplants, the first preemptive living donor liver transplant for oxalosis in an infant,the first laparoscopic living donor distal pancreatectomy and nephrectomy and, most recently, the first robot-assisted total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplant. Rainer Gruessner was also involved in the world’s first split pancreas transplant.His experience in innovative procedures has earned him many accolades and much respect throughout his career, and has also established Gruessner as the number one source of transplant surgery in the entire region.

Though Dr Rainer Gruessner is considered one of the top minds in modern transplantation, he is also considered a fervent believer and advocate in patients’ rights to receive only the best-quality medical care. An approachable and humble surgeon, Gruessner approaches each new procedure with the care, diligence, concern and compassion of a medical professional truly invested in the health and comfort of the patient, and continually demonstrated a strong concern for the patient’s needs.

Dr Rainer Gruessner has received much of his medical education in Germany, though he has received high-quality medical training in the United States and Japan.