Kidney-pancreas transplantation: single-center experience at a university hospital in Turkey.
BACKGROUND
One treatment option for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with end-stage nephropathy is combined pancreas-kidney transplantation, which can be performed either simultaneously (SPK) or following kidney transplantation (PAK).


METHODS
Between February 2003 and November 2004, 14 patients, including 10 males and 4 females of overall mean age of 31.3 +/- 6.1 years (range, 23-44 years), presented with end-stage renal disease secondary to type 1 diabetes mellitus. Five patients (35.7%) received SPK; 7 patients (50%) received PAK; and 2 patients (14.3%) received simultaneous pancreas and living-related kidney (SPLK) transplantations.


RESULTS
Two among 14 pancreas grafts were lost in the early postoperative period secondary to venous thrombosis despite anticoagulation including 1 with poor portal drainage. Insulin therapy was reinitiated in 1 patient after a second rejection episode in the seventh postoperative month. By the ninth median follow-up month (range, 1-21 months), all kidney grafts were functioning.


CONCLUSIONS
Our single-center short-term experience with 14 consecutive kidney-pancreas transplantations suggests that while the pancreas transplant is effective and safe to reestablish normoglycemia, this transplant creates additional surgical and immunosuppressive stresses on the patient.
Yakupoglu
Y K
YK
Akdeniz University Organ Transplantation Center, Antalya, Turkey. kamilyakupoglu@yahoo.com
Dinckan
A
A
Gurkan
A
A
Tuncer
M
M
Erdogan
O
O
Altunbas
H
H
Yakupoglu
U
U
Sari
R
R
Demirbas
A
A
D000328:Adult; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000601:surgery; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000601:surgery; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D016035:Pancreas Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000145:classification; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014421:Turkey
D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin