A pancreas transplant is an
organ transplant that involves implanting a healthy
pancreas (one that can produce insulin) into a person who usually has
diabetes. Because the pancreas is a vital organ, performing functions necessary in the digestion process, the recipient's native pancreas is left in place, and the donated pancreas is attached in a different location. In the event of rejection of the new pancreas which would quickly cause life-threatening diabetes, the recipient could not survive without the native pancreas still in place. The healthy pancreas comes from a donor who has just died or it may be a partial pancreas from a living donor. At present, pancreas transplants are usually performed in persons with insulin-dependent diabetes, who can develop severe complications. Patients with the most common- and deadliest- form of
pancreatic cancer (
pancreatic adenomas- which are usually always malignant, with a poor prognosis and high risk for metastasis- as opposed to more treatable
pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors or pancreatic
insulinomas) are usually not eligible for valuable pancreatic transplantations, since the condition usually has a very high mortality rate and the disease, which is usually highly malignant and detected too late to treat, could and probably would soon return.
In most cases, pancreas transplantation is performed on individuals with type 1
diabetes with end-stage
renal disease, brittle diabetes and hypoglycaemia unawareness. The majority of pancreas transplantation (>90%) are simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation. It may also be performed as part of a kidney-pancreas transplantation. Complications immediately after surgeryn include
thrombosis,
pancreatitis,
infection, bleeding and
rejection. Rejection may occur immediately or at any time during the patient's life. This is because the transplanted pancreas comes from another organism, thus the recipient's immune system will consider it as an aggression and try to combat it. Organ rejection is a serious condition and ought to be treated immediately. In order to prevent it, patients must take a regimen of
immunosuppressive drugs. But as episodes of rejection may reoccur throughout a patient's life, the exact choices and dosages of immunosuppressants may have to be modified over time.
The prognosis after pancreas transplantation is very good. Over the recent years, long-term success has improved and risks have decreased. One year after transplantation more than 95% of all patients are still alive and 80-85% of all pancreases are still functional. After transplantation patients need life long
immunosuppression. Immunosuppression increases the risk for a number of different kinds of infection and cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreas_transplantation
