Pancreas Transplantation: Who Gets One and Why It's Rare

The pancreas

The pancreas sits behind the stomach and in front of the spine. It makes juices that help break down food and hormones that help control blood sugar.

The transplant

A pancreas transplant is surgery to place a healthy donor pancreas in a person whose pancreas is diseased.

• Who: mostly people with severe type 1 diabetes.
• The benefit: it can let them stop insulin shots.
• An alternative under study: islet cell transplantation, an experimental procedure that transplants only the insulin-making parts of the pancreas.

The trade-offs

• Lifelong drugs: like all transplant recipients, people must take medicines for the rest of their lives to keep the body from rejecting the new pancreas.
• Follow-up: regular medical care is needed.
• Because of these risks, it is not a common treatment for type 1 diabetes.

Sources

Based on "Pancreas Transplantation," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine; a work of the United States government in the public domain.