Incidence and Outcomes of Significant Weight Changes After Pancreas Transplant Alone

Weight change, primarily weight gain, is a common problem among solid organ transplant recipients. The incidence of weight gain or loss after successful pancreas transplant alone (PTA) and the effect on graft survival is unknown.

This was a single-center observational study among PTA recipients, transplanted at our center between January 1, 2005, and July 31, 2017, who had a functional pancreas graft for at least 1 year and documented weight change at the 1-year clinic visit.

In this cohort study of 105 PTA recipients, 28 had significant weight gain, 27 had significant weight loss, and the remaining 50 did not have significant weight change at 1-year posttransplant. When comparing the weight gain and no weight change groups, the weight gain cohort started to gain weight at 3 months posttransplant to 5 years or last follow up. Similarly, the weight loss group lost weight at 3 months posttransplant up to last follow up. Clinically significant weight gain or weight loss were not associated with uncensored or death censored graft failure in univariate regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Also, there were no significant differences between the groups in the glycated hemoglobin at last follow up.

Approximately 50% of PTA recipients had a significant weight change at 1-year posttransplant, of which 25% gained significant weight and 25% loss. There was no significant difference in graft survival due to the significant weight changes. Further research is needed in this field.