[Possibilities of pancreas transplantation]

The prognosis of patients with juvenile onset diabetes which require dialysis is poor, even if blood glucose is kept in the normal range by administration of exogenous insulin in standard techniques. Animal experiments have shown, that late complications of diabetes can be prevented by transplantation of pancreatic tissue. This is why pancreas transplantation is discussed for the application in humans. Allogenic islet transplants could not show long-term function. At the present time the transplantation of segmental grafts seems to be the method of choice, especially when combined with a new technique of occluding the ductal system. This technique could be shown to prevent the early complications related to the exocrine part of the graft. Up to the end of Oct. 1980 there have been 15 living recipients, 4 of them with grafts functioning longer than one year.