Pancreas transplantation: international registry data

The International Pancreas Transplant Registry received information on 1,157 pancreas transplants between December 1966 and April 1987. The results have progressively improved (p less than 0.001); graft and recipient survival rates at 1 year were 5% and 40% for 1966-1977 cases (N = 60), 20% and 71% for 1978-1982 cases (N = 205), and 43% and 80% for 1983-1987 cases (N = 92). In the 1983-1987 era, the graft survival rates have been similar (p less than 0.1) for the three most common duct management techniques, 46% at 1 year for polymer injection (N = 281), 44% for intestinal drainage (N = 253), and 44% for bladder drainage (N = 297), as well as for whole (N = 364) versus segmental (N = 528) grafts (41% versus 45% at 1 yr) and whether the spleen was (N = 27) or was not (N = 865) included (32% versus 44% at 1 yr). A preservation time of less than 6 hours (N = 557) was associated with higher graft functional survival rates than preservation times of 6 to 12 hours (N= 173) and greater than 12 hours (N = 67), 47%, 39%, and 35%, respectively at 1 year, but only the less than 6 versus the 6 to 12 hour difference was significant (p less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)