Pancreas procurement from multiorgan donors for islet trasplantation

The outcome of human islet isolation procedures can be significantly effected by the technique used for pancreas procurement. In fact, the final step of islet purification using discontinuous density gradients requires a significant difference between the density of the islets and the density of the non-endocrine component of the gland. Therefore, any procedure during multi-organ procurement that will result in edema or degranulation of the acinar tissue will result in failure of the islet purification step. In this report a technique for combined harvesting of liver and pancreas is presented. The use of this procedure can be of assistance to avoid damage to the pancreas that could result in a compromised islet purification for improper handling of the gland even before it arrives to the isolation facility.