In Memoriam: Davide Francesco D’Amico (1936–2026), Pioneer of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation

By
Umberto Cillo
October 8, 2026

Updates In Surgery

At a Glance

Category	Detail
Condition	Hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplantation
Key Mechanisms	The article describes the development of surgical and transplant programmes through international training, team preparation, and institutional leadership; it does not discuss disease mechanisms.
Target Population	Not applicable; this is a memorial article about a surgeon and academic.
Care Setting	Surgical and transplant services, particularly the University of Padua programme and Italian hepatobiliary surgery institutions.

Key Highlights

D’Amico helped initiate the Italian Association of Hepatobiliary Surgery in 1982 and later served as its Secretary General.
He led Padua’s first liver transplant on November 23, 1990, the first performed in Northeast Italy.
In 1997, he and Koichi Tanaka performed Italy’s first paediatric living-donor liver transplant.
He served as president of the IHPBA from 2006 through 2008 and held leadership roles in several Italian surgical societies.
His legacy included a structured surgical school and training that encouraged young surgeons to gain experience abroad.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

Management

Monitoring & Follow-up

Risks

Patient & Prescribing Data

Not applicable; the article does not report patient-level or prescribing data.

The article recounts milestones in liver transplantation and surgical programme development but provides no treatment recommendations or prescribing information.