Trasplante de páncreas en España. Razones y soluciones para un viejo problema

Pancreas transplantation: 50 years of experience

In December 1966, the first pancreas transplant ever was performed at the University of Minnesota. R. Lillehei and W. Kelly, transplanted a kidney and a pancreas in a diabetic patient on dialysis, getting function of both organs. Since then, the technical and immunological advances in this transplant have resulted in graft and patient survival results as the rest of the abdominal solid organ transplants. The balance of these 50 years is that more than 50,000 diabetic patients have been transplanted in more than 200 centers around the world. In our country the first transplant was performed 34 years ago in Barcelona and now 12 centers perform about 100 transplants per year. Although advances in diabetes control have been very important, pancreas transplantation continues to be the only method that allows normalization of the carbohydrates metabolism to improve the quality of life and, above all, to increase the survival of these patients.

[Pancreas transplant in Spain: better late than...]

Pancreas transplant is the only method that enables diabetic patients to have a normal carbohydrate metabolism in the long-term. Its application in selected patients has shown to have patient survival rates, at one year of the graft, similar to those transplanted with other solid organs, such as kidney, heart, liver, etc. The indications are currently well established, with combined pancreas-kidney transplant being the most common, followed by pancreas transplant after a functioning kidney transplant and isolated pancreas transplant in pre-uraemic patients. In 2005, in Spain, under the auspices of the National Transplant Organisation (ONT), a consensus meeting was held with the scientific societies involved in this type of transplant, to standardise its indications and highlight its benefits in order to optimise the results of this transplant in our country. The most important conclusions of this consensus meeting are discussed in this short article.