Current Status of Pancreas and Islet Cell

Abstract

Pancreas transplantation has emerged as an effective treatment for patients with diabetes mellitus,especially those with established end-stage renal disease. Surgical and immunosuppressiveadvances have significantly improved allograft survival. The procedure reduces mortalitycompared with diabetic kidney transplant recipients and wait listed patients. Improvements indiabetic nephropathy and retinopathy have also been demonstrated. Pancreas transplantationcan improve cardiovascular risk profiles, improve cardiac function and decrease cardiovascularevents. Lastly, improvements in diabetic neuropathy and quality of life can result from pancreastransplantation. Pancreas transplantation remains the most effective method to establish durableeuglycemia for patients with diabetes mellitus.

Keywords

• Pancreas transplantation
• Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation
• Diabetes mellitus
• Glycemic control
• Islet cell transplantation