Pancreas transplantation in shiraz organ transplant center; the first Iranian experience.
BACKGROUND
Pancreas transplantation is the treatment of choice for selected patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. We reviewed our first 40 patients who underwent pancreas transplantation in Shiraz Organ Transplant Center.


METHODS
Between April 2006 and April 2008, we performed pancreas transplantation on 40 recipients. The operation included portal venous drainage and exocrine enteric drainage. Immunosuppressive therapy included prednisolone, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil. Ganciclovir was administered as prophylaxis for cytomegalovirus. Peri-operative and regular follow up data on survival and complication were gathered and analyzed.


RESULTS
The mean follow-up was 10.1+/-6.5 months (range: 1 - 24 months). Mean age of donors and recipients was 23.6+/-8.2 and 32.30+/-8.9 years, respectively. The mean pretransplant insulin consumption was 43.75+/-17.4 IU. Fasting blood glucose before transplantation was 275.5+/-72.3 mg/dL that decreased to 95.6+/-7.01 at six months follow-up (P<0.001). Complications were as follows: re-exploration (n=9), gastrointestinal complications (n=10), acute rejection episodes (n=12), and chronic rejection (n=4). We lost one patient due to diffuse cytomegalovirus and aspergillus infection three months after the operation with a functioning graft. Overall graft survival was 84.9% and patient survival 97.5%.


CONCLUSIONS
Good patient and graft survival in these series encouraged us to continue the program with all its difficulties.
Nikeghbalian
Saman
S
Shiraz Organ Transplantation Center, Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. transpln@sums.ac.ir
Malek-Hosseini
Seyyed-Ali
SA
Salahi
Heshmatollah
H
Bahador
Ali
A
Geramizadeh
Bita
B
Salehipour
Mehdi
M
Davari
Hamid-Reza
HR
Kazemi
Kourosh
K
Nejatollahi
Seyed-Mohammad-Reza
SM
Dehghani
Masood
M
Kakaei
Farzad
F
Ghaffaripour
Sina
S
Roozbeh
Jamshid
J
Sagheb
Mohammad-Mehdi
MM
Rais-Jalali
Ghanbar-Ali
GA
Gholami
Siavash
S