Overview
A pancreas transplant is a surgical procedure that involves implanting a healthy pancreas into a person whose pancreas no longer can supply sufficient insulin to the body. The healthy pancreas comes from either a deceased donor, or in the form of a partial pancreas from a living donor.
A successful pancreas transplant will eliminate the need for insulin injections, reduce or eliminate dietary and activity restrictions due to diabetes, and can also help manage the damage to end- organs including eyes and kidneys that may result from type 1 diabetes.
A pancreas transplant offers a potential cure for type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes. In some cases, pancreas transplants may also treat type 2 diabetes. Rarely, pancreas transplants may be used in the treatment of pancreatic, bile duct or other cancers or in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
A pancreas transplant is often done in conjunction with a kidney transplant in people whose kidneys have been damaged by diabetes.
The world’s first clinical pancreas transplant was performed, simultaneously with a kidney graft, on December 16, 1966, to treat a uremic diabetic patient at the University of Minnesota (U.S). Since then, more than 12,000 pancreases have been transplanted worldwide.
There are 3 major categories of Pancreas Transplant: 1) Simultaneous Pancreas Kidney (SPK) 2) Solitary Pancreas Transplant (Pancreas After Kidney, PAK or Pancreas Transplant Alone, PTA) and 3) Pancreas islet cell transplantation. Among these main categories, SPK accounts for approximately 75%; PAK, 15%; PTA, 7%; and islet cell transplantation, 3% of all transplants.
