Pancreas transplantation. An initial experience with systemic and portal drainage of pancreatic allografts.

Pancreas transplantation has evolved dramatically since its introduction in 1966. As new centers for transplantation have developed, the evaluation of complications associated with pancreas transplantation has led to advances in surgical technique. Furthermore, surgical alterations of the pancreas resulting from transplantation (systemic release of insulin and denervation) are of unproven consequence on glucose metabolism. Since 1988, the authors have performed 21 transplants (16 combined pancreas/kidney, 3 pancreas alone, which includes 1 retransplantation, 1 pancreas after previous kidney transplant, and 1 "cluster") in 20 patients aged 18 to 49 years; mean, 35 +/- 1 years. Overall patient survival is 95%. Three pancreatic grafts failed within the first year because of technical failure; one additional pancreas was lost to an immunologic event on postoperative day 449, for an overall pancreatic graft survival of 81%. No renal grafts were lost. To evaluate causes of graft failure, demographic data were compared, which included age and sex of the donor and the recipient, operative time, intraoperative blood transfusion, and ischemic time of the graft. No statistically significant differences were found between groups except for ischemic time (11.7 +/- 6.4 hours for the technical success group versus 19.8 +/- 3.7 hours for the technical failure group; p less than 0.05 by unpaired Student's t test). Quadruple immunosuppression was used, which included prednisone, cyclosporine, azathioprine, and antilymphoblast globulin. A mean of 1.2 (range, 0 to 3) rejection episodes per patient occurred. Mean hospital stay was 24 +/- 11 days. Surgical and infectious complications were evaluated by comparing the technical success (TS) group (n = 17) with the technical failure (TF) group. Surgical complications in the TS group revealed a mean of 1.3 episodes per patient, whereas the TF group had 3.7 episodes per patient. The TS also had a reduced incidence of infectious complications compared with the TF (1.7 versus 4.3 episodes per patient). Cytomegalovirus was common in both groups, accounting for 11 infectious episodes, and occurred on a mean postoperative day of 38. Mean postoperative HbA1C levels dropped to 5 +/- 1% from 11 +/- 3%. The authors developed a new technique that incorporates portal drainage of the pancreatic venous effluent in three recipients. Preoperative metabolic studies disclosed a mean fasting glucose of 211 +/- 27 mg/dL and a mean stimulated glucose value of 434 +/- 41 mg/dL for all patients; the mean fasting insulin was 23 +/- 4 microU/mL.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)