Dr. Amadeo Marcos' decision to step down this week as University of Pittsburgh Medical Center transplantation chief was unrelated to clinical or patient care issues, the region's largest hospital system said yesterday as it addressed the sudden turmoil and scrutiny within its world-famous transplant center.

Dr. Amadeo Marcos

Dr. Marcos, asked by UPMC to resign after violating the system's code-of-conduct policy, plans to stay at UPMC until June as both a university faculty member and an employee of UPMC.

He "has elected" not to perform surgery during that time, according to UPMC spokesman Paul Wood, who said the 46-year-old surgeon would instead devote his remaining time to completing research projects, finishing his work at UPMC and seeking a new position elsewhere. UPMC would not elaborate yesterday on specific reasons for Dr. Marcos's departure, saying it does not comment on personnel issues or code-of-conduct violations.

Dr. Marcos could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In the wake of the surprise resignation, UPMC disclosed the existence of a "broad-based, independent study" of complication rates in its living donor liver transplant program -- Dr. Marcos' area of expertise. As part of the review, UPMC has collected surgical complication data from the start of the living donor program and enough now exists "to analyze in a meaningful way," according to Mr. Wood.

"UPMC is quite proud of its transplant program and feels that the results will re-affirm the excellence of the program."

In 2007, there were 19 living donor liver transplants at UPMC and 164 from deceased donors, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Living donors, often family members, can donate a portion of the liver, which can regenerate. Since the late 1990s, more than 160 living donor transplants have occurred at UPMC, and more than 50 at UPMC-owned Children's Hospital.

The one-year survival rate for adult living donor transplant recipients at UPMC from July 2004 through December 2006 was about 88 percent, compared to an expected rate of about 91 percent, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. The registry noted that UPMC's survival rate was not significantly different from what would be expected.

"Regardless of what UPMC is doing with transplant doctors, we have full confidence they'll fill the positions with exemplary surgeons," said Holly Bulvony, a spokeswoman for the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, the region's organ recovery organization.

More also emerged yesterday about an incident last summer involving Dr. Marcos, who was arrested by Pittsburgh police on a simple assault charge. According to court records, on June 23 at 12:50 a.m. officers observed Dr. Marcos seated in the driver's side of a silver Porsche Cayenne, pressing a female passenger against the car's passenger door/window. Both Dr. Marcos and the woman were yelling at each other, according to police.

Officers reported that the woman's lip was slit and bleeding. She told officers that Dr. Marcos punched her four or five times in the face and head because he asked her to get out of the vehicle and she refused. Officers reported there was redness and swelling along the left side of the woman's head.

Dr. Marcos told officers he was arguing with the woman because she wouldn't give him his car keys.

Dr. Marcos was arrested and was taken to the Allegheny County Jail for arraignment on a domestic violence charge. He was later released on his own recognizance with the requirement that he be evaluated for anger-management issues. He agreed to an eight-session anger management program.

A preliminary hearing in Domestic Violence Court was postponed at Dr. Marcos's request. The District Attorney's office indicated then that the charge would be withdrawn if he successfully completed the anger management classes. The victim in the case signed off on that as well.

At the rescheduled preliminary hearing on July 19, the District Attorney's office withdrew the charge because South Side Counseling indicated that Dr. Marcos had successfully completed the anger management classes, adding that he was "forthcoming throughout and has displayed growth."

According to Robert Del Greco, Dr. Marcos' attorney, after the charges were withdrawn, the records of the arrest and proceedings were ordered to be expunged.

Several years earlier, Dr. Marcos was named as a defendant in a sexual harassment case in Virginia, shortly after he left a position at the Medical College of Virginia. A woman filed a sexual harassment case against him in August 2000, according to a court docket in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virgina. The case was terminated in 2001, according to the docket. A source involved in the case said the two parties settled out of court.

Later, Dr. Marcos was notified in a Sept. 17, 2003 letter from Virginia Board of Medicine Director William Harp that a committee would "inquire into allegations that you may have violated certain laws governing the practice of medicine in Virginia."

There were allegations that from 1996 to 2000 he "engaged in a pattern of conduct which included abusive and sexually inappropriate behavior toward individuals with whom you worked and supervised," Dr. Harp wrote.

The Medical College of Virginia had notified Dr. Marcos in a March 24, 2000 letter that it intended to terminate his employment there. He resigned his position on March 27, 2000, according to Dr. Harp's letter, which is publicly available.

But after a meeting was held with Dr. Marcos on Nov. 5, 2003 in Richmond to review the allegations, a Board of Medicine committee found that "clear and convincing evidence to support a violation. . . could not be established."

The matter was dismissed.