simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplantation benefits diabetics
New York (Reuters Health) - People with type 1 diabetes who need a kidney transplant are better in the long term when they receive a pancreas transplant at the same time, said a team of scientists.
Experts belonged to the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.
"Our study shows that a pancreas in good condition benefits the transplanted kidney simultaneously," said the main author of the study, Dr. Christian Moath, in a statement.
"At the same time, this procedure extends the patient's survival, compared to the unique kidney transplant," added the specialist.
Although exactly the explanation of this increase in survival with the simultaneous transplantation of pancreas and kidney is unknown, a possibility is the best glucose control that confers the combined procedure, the team said in Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The study included 2,190 receptors of a living donor kidney, 5,705 receptors of a cadaveric donor kidney and 3,525 patients who received a combined pancreas and kidney transplant.
In relation to the rest of the groups, the receptors of a living donor kidney had lower survival rates, which for the team is a finding that coincides with previous studies.
Initially, the pancreas and kidney receptor group had a worse survival that the living donor kidney receptors, but the rate of the first group reached that of the second and after 10 years its survival was the highest.
In fact, the risk of dying at 10 years among the receptors of a pancreas and kidney transplant was 45 percent lower than in living donor kidney receptors.
"According to these results, all type 1 diabetics should be taken into account with renal failure to receive a simultaneous transplantation of pancreas and kidney," Moath concluded.
Source: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, online May 21, 2008