Alaa Jaffar
Can you imagine that there is an effective treatment for diabetes? Have you ever heard about pancreas transplant?
Well, a pancreas transplant is a surgery to implant a healthy pancreas from a donor into a person with diabetes. It was first conducted in December 1996 by William Kelly and Richard Liellehei. Pancreas transplantation can restore normal insulin production and improve blood sugar control which gives the person a chance to stop taking insulin therapy.
It is done for people with type 1 diabetes. It can be done for type 2 when it is associated with both low insulin resistance and low insulin production. The surgery for pancreas transplant takes about 3 hours. It can be associated with kidney transplant for people who have kidney failure. The combination operation takes about 6 hours.
It is done by placing the donor pancreas in the right lower part of the person’s abdomen and then the blood vessels from the new pancreas attached to the person’s blood vessels.
After the surgery the person will take medications for the rest of his life to prevent his body from rejecting the graft and potential recurrence of the autoimmune process that might again destroy pancreatic islet cell.
Unfortunately, the surgery carries a risk of complications including blood clots, bleeding, infection, and urinary complication such as leaking or urinary tract infections.
Nowadays, pancreas transplantation is the last choice of treatment for diabetes because the surgery has significant complications and is expensive. But hopefully in the future it will be the easiest solution for being free from diabetes.
References:
https://medlineplus.gov
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