Pancreatic transplantation

In the last few years there has been considerable improvement in results with pancreatic transplantation. Several centers now report a 1-year graft survival rate of 50%-60%. Patients with well-functioning grafts become insulin independent and have normal or near normal fasting ans post-prandial glucose levels and normal glycosylated hemoglobin values. The glucose tolerance as measured by oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests is normal in 50%-80% of the patients but subnormal in the others. One important reason for subnormal glucose tolerance is medication with cyclosporin and prednisolone. In most cases an improvement in neuropathy is found and retinopathy seems to be stabilized. Preliminary data indicate that the provision of a pancreatic graft prevents the occurrence of diabetic nephropathy in a simultaneously or previously transplanted kidney.