Follow-up study of the first successful living donor islet transplantation.
BACKGROUND
Islet transplantation has become an option for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and is usually performed using brain-dead heartbeating donors. However, we have very limited number of such donors in Japan; therefore, it is not allowed to perform islet transplantation with brain-dead donors. In order to perform islet transplantation in Japan, we need to seek new donor resources.


METHODS
We performed the first successful living-donor islet transplantation. In this case, the recipient had brittle diabetes with hypoglycemic unawareness. The donor was deemed qualified after undergoing both metabolic and preoperative assessments. Distal pancreatectomy was performed using open laparotomy and more than 400,000 islets were isolated and transplanted immediately.


RESULTS
The recipient has been insulin independent posttransplant with positive C-peptide for more than one year. She no longer suffers from hypoglycemic unawareness and displayed a substantial improvement in hemoglobulin (Hb) A1C. The donor's clinical course was uneventful, which allowed her to return to her job within one month. She maintained normal fasting C-peptide and HbA1C levels during follow-up period.


CONCLUSIONS
In our first case of living donor islet transplantation, both the donor and the recipient have been maintaining excellent glycemic control with no untreatable complications for more than one year.
Matsumoto
Shinichi
S
2nd Department of Surgery, Fujita Health University, Aichi, Japan. shinichi41@mac.com
Okitsu
Teru
T
Iwanaga
Yasuhiro
Y
Noguchi
Hirofumi
H
Nagata
Hideo
H
Yonekawa
Yukihide
Y
Liu
Xiaoling
X
Kamiya
Hiroki
H
Ueda
Michiko
M
Hatanaka
Nobuyo
N
Kobayashi
Naoya
N
Yamada
Yuichiro
Y
Miyakawa
Shuichi
S
Seino
Yutaka
Y
Shapiro
A M James
AM
Tanaka
Koichi
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D046148:Donor Selection; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome