Clinical Focus

• General Surgery
• Liver Transplantation
• Kidney Transplantation
• Hepatobiliary

Administrative Appointments

• Program Director, Stanford Surgery Residency (2011 - present)
• Associate Program Director, Stanford Multi-Organ Transplant Fellowship (2010 - present)
• Associate Program Director, Stanford Surgery Residency (2006 - 2011)
• Administrative Chief Resident, Stanford Surgery Residency (2003 - 2004)

Honors and Awards

• Poster of Distinction, American Transplant Congress (2010)
• Member, San Francisco Surgical Society (2009-)
• Member, American Society of Transplant Surgeons (2004-)
• Fellow, American College of Surgeons (2009 -)
• Member, Association for Academic Surgery (2007-)

Professional Education

Community and International Work

• International Medicine, Guatemala 

Internet Links

• Paired Exchange Kidney Donation

Current Research Interests

My goal is to extend the benefits of organ transplant to greater numbers of patients while maintaining Stanford's excellent outcomes. We have set up a protocol to treat morbidly obese patients, who normally would not qualify for kidney transplant, with bariatric surgery prior to kidney transplantation. We are also developing the "paired-organ exchange" program at Stanford to increase the chances that patients with willing but incompatible living donors can still receive a living donor kidney.

Clinical Trials

• Combined Blood Stem Cell and HLA Haplotype Match Living Donor Kidney Transplantation Recruiting
• Comparative Renal function of young (18-45 years) and Ageing (55 years and above) Kidney Donors Recruiting
• An Investigational Plan Evaluating the Operative Management of Parenchymal Bleeding by Means of an Adjunctive Application of BioFoam® Surgical Matrix in Liver Surgery Not yet recruiting

Publications

• Incidental kidney stones: a single center experience with kidney donor selection. Kim IK, Tan JC, Lapasia J, Elihu A, Busque S, Melcher ML. Clin Transplant. 2011
• Managing finances of shipping living donor kidneys for donor exchanges. Mast DA, Vaughan W, Busque S, Veale JL, Roberts JP, Straube BM, Flores N, Canari C, Levy E, Tietjen A, Hil G, Melcher ML. Am J Transplant. 2011; 11 (9): 1810-4
• Potential nutritional conflicts in bariatric and renal transplant patients. Lightner AL, Lau J, Obayashi P, Birge K, Melcher ML. Obes Surg. 2011; 21 (12): 1965-70
• Sclerosing peritonitis after kidney transplantation: a not-so-silky cocoon. Morrow EH, Gallo AE, Melcher ML. Dig Dis Sci. 2011; 56 (2): 307-10
• Transporting live donor kidneys for kidney paired donation: initial national results. Segev DL, Veale JL, Berger JC, Hiller JM, Hanto RL, Leeser DB, Geffner SR, Shenoy S, Bry WI, Katznelson S, Melcher ML, Rees MA, Samara EN, Israni AK, Cooper M, Montgomery RJ, Malinzak L, Whiting J, Baran D, Tchervenkov JI, Roberts JP, Rogers J, Axelrod DA, Simpkins CE, Montgomery RA. Am J Transplant. 2011; 11 (2): 356-60