Introduction

Since the inception of his all brilliant medical carreer, Jean-Bernard Otte has always had a particular interest in liver transplantation. This interest has been concretized early by a research fellowship of the Belgo-American Education Foundation, during his third year surgical residency with Professor Thomas E. Starzl at the University of Colorado in Denver. After early attempts with professor P.J. Kestens in 1969 and 1971, the liver transplant program at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels was launched in 1983 under the leadership of Jean-Bernard Otte.