Pancreas Transplant at the University of Maryland

The characteristic of our diabetic population has been ever changing. No longer are our Type 1 diabetics young and thin; they too suffer from the obesity epidemic and now present later with the complications of diabetes (renal dysfunction, hypoglycemic unawareness, vision loss, neuropathy, etc.). Even with all of our medical and technological advances to combat diabetes, there are many who are not very well controlled. We evaluated the pancreas transplant recipients in the last three years at the University of Maryland to study the outcomes of these older and higher body mass index (BMI) recipients, as well as the impact of using older and higher BMI donors. We saw no difference in the survival of the patient or the allograft of recipients who were older or had higher BMIs. We also saw no difference in morbidity for these patients. There also was no difference when using older or higher BMI donor organs, longer cold ischemic times, different types of donors (donation after cardiac death versus brain dead donors), or different types of organs (simultaneous pancreas kidney, pancreas transplant alone, or pancreas after kidney). In reviewing our waitlist, our patients range widely in age and BMI. As long as they are fit for surgery, we will continue to transplant our ever growing population of older and obese diabetics without any more adverse outcomes than occur in our normal weight and younger patients.