The University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, has decided to continue performing liver transplants, ending months of acrimonious debate over the future of the transplant program at the hospital.

A consultant recommended last June that the liver and cardiac transplant programs at the hospital be eliminated as part of an effort to reduce the hospital's operating deficit. The hospital announced in August that it intended to continue the cardiac transplant program, but might close the liver program.

But Dr. Dana K. Andersen, chairman of the department of surgery, said a general financial turnaround in the University of Massachusetts Memorial system over the past year will allow the liver transplant program to continue as well.

"It's a true asset even though it's not yet profitable," Andersen said.

Other sources: Worcester Telegram and Gazette