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Is Pancreas Transplant Beneficial for Diabetics

Is Pancreas Transplant Beneficial for Diabetics

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After a pancreas transplant, up to 90% of diabetes patients no longer require insulin therapy or routine blood glucose checks.

Highlights:
  • Up to 90% of diabetic patients who underwent a pancreas transplantation no longer need insulin therapy or frequent glucose monitoring
  • This surgery can help patients control their blood sugar levels more effectively
Pancreas transplantation outcomes are improving, and up to 90% of patients with diabetes no longer require insulin therapy or frequent glucose monitoring after the procedure.

What is Pancreas Transplant

In a procedure known as a pancreas transplant, the patient’s natural pancreas is left in place and a healthy donor pancreas is given to them. Successful pancreas transplant recipients no longer require insulin and maintain stable blood sugar levels. The trade-off is that patients must have major surgery and take immune system-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives.

“A pancreas transplant mitigates changes in blood sugar levels, eliminates the daily stigma and burden of diabetes, restores normal blood sugar regulation in patients with complicated diabetes, and improves quality of life and life expectancy,” said Jonathan A. Fridell, M.D., Chief, Abdominal Transplant Surgery of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Ind. “Despite steadily improving outcomes coupled with expanded patient selection criteria to include some patients with type 2 diabetes, a decline in pancreas transplant surgeries has occurred in recent years.”

Benefits of Pancreas Transplant

A successful pancreas transplant can help patients control their blood sugar levels more effectively than any other type of diabetes treatment available today. The absence of a primary referral source and widespread acceptance by the diabetic care community, the lack of consensus criteria, problems with access, education, and resources within the transplant community, and other factors have led to a decrease in the number of transplants.

“More patients with diabetes who are failing insulin therapy or experiencing progressive diabetic complications regardless of diabetes type should be considered for a pancreas transplant,” Fridell said. “All patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease should undergo consideration for combined kidney and pancreas transplantation independent of geography or location.”

Source-Medindia


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