Pancreas transplantation: the donor’s side of the story
BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3784 (Published 17 August 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;358:j3784
- Iestyn M Shapey, MRC clinical research fellow12,
- Angela Summers, senior research fellow12,
- Titus Augustine, consultant transplant and endocrine surgeon and honorary senior lecturer13,
- Martin K Rutter, senior lecturer and honorary consultant diabetologist13,
- David van Dellen, consultant transplant and general surgeon and honorary senior lecturer12
- 1Faculty of Medicine, Biology and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK
- 2Department of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK
- 3Manchester Diabetes Centre, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK
- iestyn.shapey{at}cmft.nhs.uk
It is refreshing to see pancreas and islet transplantation receiving the international attention it urgently deserves in Dean and colleagues’ State of the Art Review.1 Improving knowledge and understanding of the potential benefits of pancreas transplantation among referring physicians is important, as current referral rates to UK pancreas transplantation centres are low and do not reflect the number of people that could benefit from surgical intervention.
Dean’s review focuses on the indications for, and outcomes of, pancreas and islet transplantation.1 But this represents only the recipient’s half of the process and does not acknowledge the major challenges around donors.
Pancreas donation comes almost exclusively from dead people, after brain or circulatory death. But two thirds of donor pancreases offered …
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