Diabetes is one of the major causes of kidney disease in the United States. Nearly 30% of people waiting for a kidney transplant are diabetics whose kidney disease is a direct result of their diabetes.
Transplanting the insulin producing cells of the pancreas remains the only cure for diabetes. Unfortunately, the positive effects of promising islet cell injections have proved to be only temporary. In contrast, successful whole organ pancreas transplantation eliminates the need for daily blood glucose testing and insulin injections or pumps for the lifetime of the transplant. As a result, it also eliminates some of the life-threatening complications that chronic high blood sugar can cause to the kidneys, heart, nerves, and vision.
“The success rate for pancreas transplantation has increased dramatically over the last six years,” notes Marc Uknis, M.D., renowned transplant surgeon and newest member of the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division’s Department of Transplant Surgery. “With advanced surgical techniques and improved anti-rejection medications, 90 percent of patients who receive a pancreas transplant are living insulin-free one year after transplantation.” This figure is up from 75 percent just a few years ago and disproves previous claims that pancreas transplantation provided no benefit.
According to Dr. Uknis, who performed many pancreas transplants at one of the nation’s premier centers, pancreas transplantation offers recipients several advantages. “For diabetics who have already received a kidney transplant, a transplanted pancreas can protect the new kidney from the same damage that caused the patient’s own kidney to fail,” he explains. In some cases damage to the kidney, nerves or other organs can be reversed, or at least stopped, if the pancreas is transplanted in the earliest stages of the disease process.
The Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division at Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center currently offers people with type I insulin-dependent diabetes and kidney disease the opportunity for simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation, as well as pancreas transplantation after kidney transplant. “I hope that our team can begin offering transplantation of the pancreas alone as early as next year,” says Dr. Uknis. “It is a very complicated surgery that requires an experienced surgical team and a solid program for educating and screening candidates,” notes Dr. Uknis. “The Saint Barnabas Centers have both.”
“There is no doubt that pancreas transplantation offers recipients the chance to avoid the devastating side effects of diabetes–such as kidney failure, hypoglycemic coma, blindness, and other serious problems,” stresses Dr. Uknis. “Certainly transplant is not for everyone, but it can provide a better quality of life for many whose diabetes cannot be adequately controlled with diet and medication.”
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| Bill Fox, 54 of Denville, NJ, says his life was changed in profound ways after he received a simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant. No longer a diabetic, he enjoys an active life with loved ones, Susan (right) and Samantha Hurley. |
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