Surgical techniques and results in pancreatic transplantation

A major stumbling block preventing success with pancreatic transplantation has been the handling of the exocrine secretion from the pancreatic graft. As a consequence, numerous surgical techniques have been evaluated such as duct ligation, free intraperitoneal drainage, ductal filling with polymers, exocrine diversion to the urinary tract, to the bowel and to the stomach. Also, because of problems encountered with the duodenum, segmental body-and-tail pancreatic grafts have been used for many years. However, it seems today that mainly two different techniques for pancreatic transplantation remain. In both whole pancreaticoduodenal grafts are used with a vascular supply from the coeliac axis and the portal vein. The exocrine drainage is either to the urinary tract by means of a side-to-side anastomosis between donor duodenum and recipient urinary bladder, or to the bowel by a side-to-side anastomosis between donor duodenum and recipient proximal jejunum. With both these techniques the technical complications have been much reduced and as a consequence the graft survival rates are now approaching those obtained with the transplantation of the liver, heart and kidney.