Pancreas Transplant Surgery
The recipients undergo this operation under general anesthesia, where they are put to sleep, with no consciousness, pain, awareness or recollection of the operation afterwards. While under anesthesia, they are put on a ventilator and various blood lines and catheters (central line, arterial line, endotracheal tube, urinary catheter, naso-gastric tube etc.) are used to accurately monitor various parameters and allow rapid administration of blood products, IV fluids and drugs. During the surgery, various blood tests are continuously performed for monitoring the body functions.
During surgery, a six to eight inches long midline incision is made, from just below the breast bone down the center of abdomen. The donor pancreas along with a small portion of the donor’s small intestine (duodenum) is placed into recipient’s right side of the lower abdomen. The donor small intestine will be attached to either the recipient’s small intestine or the urinary bladder. After this, the blood vessels from the donor pancreas are connected to recipient’s major blood vessels. If combined pancreas-kidney transplant is being performed than the kidney will be placed lower down on the left side of intra-abdominal cavity. The new kidney’s ureter is connected to recipient’s urinary bladder. The old pancreas as well as the native kidneys will not be removed from the recipient’s body.
Pancreas transplant alone (PTA) surgery usually takes about 3-4 hours to complete. A combined kidney- pancreas (SPK) operation takes about 4-6 hours. The new pancreas start producing insulin straightway on the operation table.
