MBBS(AIIMS), MS (AIIMS), FRCS (Edin), FRCS (Glas), FRCS (Transplant Surgery)-Cambridge, UK

Dr. A.S. Soin, Chairman, Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine, Medanta – The Medicity, Gurgaon, Haryana 122001, India.



He is recognized the world over for his pioneering work in establishing liver transplantation in India. From 2001 to June 2010, he established the country's busiest and most successful liver transplant and complex liver surgery Department at SGRH.

Subsequently, he has taken on a new challenge by moving with his ENTIRE LIVER TRANSPLANT TEAM from SGRH to a much bigger and better facility  - Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine, at Medanta – The Medicity, where he took over as Chairman on June 26,  2010. This is a first of its kind dedicated Institute in Asia which combines state-of the art facilities for Living donor, Cadaveric donor, pediatric and adult liver transplantation along with a large programme for stem cell and liver cell transplantation. These are cutting edge technologies that can potentially treat liver failure without transplant.

He and his team currently perform 16-18 live donor liver transplants every month with results which are at par with the world's best centres i.e., a success rate of 95% for the patients and an excellent safety record for the donors. Apart from referrals from all over the country, he handles cases from the rest of South Asia, The Middle East and Africa.
In his extensive experience of 18 years as a Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary surgeon, he has performed more than a thousand liver transplants and more than 7500 other complex liver, gall bladder and bile duct surgeries.

Brief career profile
He spent 12 years there gaining his MBBS and MS degrees followed by specialist experience in Liver and Gastrointestinal Surgery. During this period he also published a thesis on his research on Portal Hypertensive Gastropathy which was later published as a paper in an international journal.

He then went to U.K where within six months, he obtained FRCS from both Glasgow and Edinburgh, and then trained and worked in two of the world's most renowned centres for Liver and Biliary Surgery, and Liver, Kidney and Pancreas transplantation for 6 years. He became the first Indian and only the fifth surgeon in the UK to qualify and obtain an Intercollegiate FRCS in Transplant Surgery. He spent a year at University of Birmingham with Prof P McMaster and 5 years at University of Cambridge with Prof Sir Roy Calne who is acknowledged worldwide as one of the pioneers and founders of modern transplantation. Initially as a trainee and then as Faculty Lecturer at Cambridge, he accumulated an experience of conducting hundreds of liver, kidney, pancreas and intestinal transplants, expertise in complex liver and pancreatic surgery, and open and laparoscopic biliary surgery.

At Cambridge, he was a Surgical Tutor for the University MBBS students and Faculty for Royal College Training courses in Basic surgical skills and Laparoscopic Surgery for junior surgeons. In addition, he conducted pioneering research in experimental intestinal transplantation, and clinical liver transplantation. He received the annual research awards of the British Transplantation Society for the years 1994 and 1997.

He was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Liver Transplantation and Immunology at the Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan in 1997 and Visiting Faculty at the Asan Medical Centre, Seoul, Korea in 2000. These two centres are the world's most experienced and renowned for living donor liver transplantation.

In the beginning of 1998, he gave up a Faculty position at Cambridge University and returned to India to establish a centre of excellence in liver transplantation. In India, he performed the country’s first successful liver transplant in November 1998 after which he established three centres for liver transplantation.

Dr Soin has to his credit, almost all the country’s FIRSTS in liver transplantation, in addition to 3 global firsts. 

He was also the first surgeon to successfully perform laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (removal of kidney by keyhole surgery) in India. He has successfully used this technology for kidney transplantation in more than 300 cases so far.

He continues to be deeply involved in academics and research. He has been a tutor and examiner for postgraduate, superspeciality (liver transplant trainees) and PhD  courses for many years.  He has published more than 110 original research papers and chapters, and delivered more than 500 invited lectures all over the world in his field.

Besides running his own successful programme, he has also trained 26 liver transplant teams (almost all the remaining centres) all across the country. In disseminating expertise countrywide and in building confidence in the procedure among patients and their physicians, he has truly pioneered the development of this speciality in India.

In April 2010, Dr Soin was honoured with the Padma Shri for his pioneering work in Liver Transplantation in the country. In addition, has received numerous awards and honours for academic excellence as well establishing liver transplantation in India. These include British Transplant Society Research awards (1994 and 1996); The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh award (1997); the DMA Distinguished Services Award (2005), Medindia Oration award (2008)and RD Birla Outstanding Clinician award (2010).  He has delivered prestigious orations at King George’s Medical College, Lucknow;  Medindia, Chennai and KEM Hospital, Mumbai in 2007, 2008, and 2009 respectively. He was bestowed Honorary Fellowship of the King George’s Medical College and Visiting Professorship at KEM College in 2007 and 2009 respectively.   

He is one of the founder members and Trustee of the HOPE (Human Organ Procurement and Education) Trust which is a non-governmental, non-profit body aimed at spreading awareness about brain death and organ donation in order to benefit hundreds of thousands who die from organ failure in India annually.