Pancreas transplantation in nonuremic, type I diabetic recipients

Between July 1978 and January 1988, 111 of 210 pancreas transplants were in nonuremic, nonkidney (NUNK) recipients in whom complications of diabetes were judged more serious than the potential side effects of antirejection therapy. In all NUNK cases, the 1-year patient survival rate (PSR) and graft survival rate (GSR) were 90% and 39%. Since November 1984, 1-year PSR and GSR for 62 NUNK recipients of pancreas transplants alone (PTA) were 93% and 48%, compared to 89% and 37% for 28 pancreas transplants after (PAK) and 89% and 73% for 20 simultaneous (SPK) with a kidney transplant. The 1-year GSR for 1984-88 technically successful (TS) PTA cases (n = 47) was 63%, versus 75% for PAK (n = 13) and 86% for SPK (n = 17) cases. The 1-year GSRs, by technique and source for 1984-88 PTA cases, were 58% for bladder-drained cadaver (n = 30), 51% for enteric-drained related (n = 32), and 29% for enteric-drained cadaver (n = 17) donor transplants, and 75% (n = 24), 77% (n = 16), and 38% (n = 13) for the corresponding TS cases. Of NUNK recipients, 35 have had grafts function for more than 1 year and all but 3 were treated with cyclosporine (CsA). In the CsA-treated recipients, serum creatinine increased and creatinine clearances decreased by a magnitude of 40% during the first 6 months but thereafter remained stable in all but 2 patients. In the patients with functioning grafts studied at 1 year, retinopathy remained stable in 59% and progressed in 41% of the eyes (n = 39). Motor nerve conduction velocities were significantly increased and muscle action potentials remained stable in 24 patients with functioning grafts studied at 1 year, while in 14 patients in whom transplants failed there was a significant decrease in evoked muscle action potentials. A sustained euglycemic, insulin-independent state can be established in nonuremic, nonkidney diabetic recipients of pancreas transplants alone, with a beneficial effect on neuropathy, lack of an immediate benefit on advanced retinopathy, and an effect on nephropathy compounded by the influence of CsA on renal function.