Interventional procedures in whole organ and islet cell pancreas transplantation.

Pancreas organ transplantation has been a therapeutic option for the treatment of diabetes mellitus for over a decade. More recently, percutaneous injection of isolated pancreas islet cells via the portal vein has been developed as an exciting minimally invasive alternative procedure to whole organ transplantation, and one where the interventional radiologist may play a major role. This chapter reviews the role of image guided intervention in the whole organ pancreas transplant and describes the evolving technique of percutaneous islet cell transplantation.