Pediatric Liver Program Physicians
Sukru H. Emre, MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics
Director, Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center
Chief, Section of Transplantation and Immunology
Department of Surgery
Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Sukru Emre oversees the activities of Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center and its multidisciplinary group of physicians and caregivers, and continues to offer his specialty, adult and pediatric liver transplantation. Dr. Emre is section chief of transplant surgery and immunology in the department of surgery at Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Emre received his medical degree from the University of Istanbul where he also completed a residency in general surgery. His clinical post-doctoral training includes completion of a hepatobiliary surgery fellowship at the University of Istanbul and a transplant fellowship at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He also completed two transplantation research fellowships, one at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn and another at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. He holds a foreign board certification in general surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Emre is an expert in adult and pediatric liver transplantations. He has performed more than 1,500 liver transplants, of which the youngest patient was 16 days old and the oldest was 75 years old. His special interests are performing split-liver transplants (dividing a liver between two recipients thus saving two lives) and living donor transplants which involves transplanting a portion of a donor’s healthy liver. He is also expert in hepato-biliary surgery including resection for liver cancer, portal hypertension surgery, repair of complex bile duct injuries and Kasai procedure for biliary atresia. Dr. Emre’s research interests include acute liver failure, biliary atresia and rare cholestatic diseases in children, and transplanting adult patients with hepatitis B, C and liver cancer.
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Antonios Arvelakis, MD, received his medical degree from the University of Athens Medical School in Athens, Greece. After serving his general surgery residency at First Surgical Clinic of the University of Athens, Dr. Arvelakis joined the faculty of the Recanati-Miller Transplantation Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York as a multi-organ transplant sureon.
Dr. Arvelakis specializes in liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation, as well as hepatobiliary surgery. He has high interest in living donor liver transplantation, split liver transplantation and pediatric liver transplantation.
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Sandra Escalera, MD, received her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico Medical School. She completed her internship in pediatrics at SUNY Stony Brook Medical Center; and her fellowship in pediatrics, gastroenterology and hepatology at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Escalera is currently an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.
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Sohail Z. Husain, MD, is an assistant professor of pediatric gastroenterology at Yale School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree. He served his residency in pediatrics at New York University Medical Center and completed his fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Dr. Husain’s clinical interests include bowel disease, colitis, Crohn’s disease, pancreatic disease, inflammatory bowel disease, esophageal disorders, diarrheal disease, and liver disease and disorders.
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Sanjay Kulkarni, MD, is a multi-organ transplant surgeon specializing in kidney, pancreas and liver transplants. He is the current director of kidney transplant, pancreas transplant and dialysis access services at Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center (YNHTC).
Dr. Kulkarni has developed a multidisciplinary approach to the complete management of the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) population, starting with close communication with referring physicians regarding dialysis access needs, through patients transplant evaluation and ultimately their transplant.
Dr. Kulkarni is responsible for the total laparoscopic kidney donation program at Yale-New Haven Hospital –the only center in Connecticut to provide this service, regardless of kidney anatomy.
Dr. Kulkarni received his M.D. from Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his general surgery training at the University of Chicago, followed by two additional years of transplant research involving single-chain antibody formation and programmed cell death. Dr. Kulkarni served a two-year fellowship in multi-organ transplant surgery at the University of Chicago, with additional living donor liver transplantation experience at the renowned University of Essen Transplant Program. During his transplant surgery fellowship he was accepted into an NIH-funded clinical research training program.
Dr. Kulkarni is a member of the Vascular Biology & Transplant consortium at Yale University and is a participant in investigations looking at animal models of vascular remodeling following ischemic injury. These studies have important implication to kidney transplant patients and how their transplants change over time.
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Pramod Mistry, MD, PhD, is chief of pediatric liver diseases and gastroenterology at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine.Dr. Mistry, a hepatologist, is internationally recognized for his expertise in pulmonary hypertension and Gaucher’s disease. Dr. Mistry’s clinical interest also include acute and chronic liver diseases, hepatitis C and B, liver transplantation, lysosomal storage diseases, Wilson’s disease, adult genetic liver diseases, and hemochromatosis.
Since coming to Yale in 2001, Dr. Mistry developed a new inherited metabolic liver disease clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital to which patients come for treatment from across the nation.
Dr. Mistry received his medical degree from Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London. He completed his residency at Royal Free Hospital and his fellowship at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England.
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Dinesh Pashankar, MD, is associate professor of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology at Yale School of Medicine. He received his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees from University of Poona, India and served his residency in pediatrics at Sasoon General Hospital. He completed his fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology at British Columbia Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Pashankar’s clinical interests include gastroesophageal reflux disease, chronic constipation, encopresis, and inflammatory bowel disease.



