Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplant Restores Health

If you're battling diabetes and kidney disease, talk to your Sutter Health network doctor to find out if you qualify for a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant. This technique—which places a healthy kidney and pancreas into your body at the same time—not only eliminates the need for dialysis, but also relieves diabetes sufferers’ daily burden of insulin shots and blood glucose monitoring. The new kidney filters poisons out of your body while the new pancreas makes insulin automatically, as your body needs it. 

Since 1989, specialists at California Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health affiliate, have performed this advanced surgery with consistently excellent outcomes. CPMC is one of the two most active simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant programs in Northern California and achieves outstanding patient and organ survival rates, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. 

Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplant Process

After a thorough evaluation, if you’re a good candidate for simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant—for some people, now the preferred treatment for kidney failure due to diabetes—you’ll be placed on a priority waiting list. The average wait for a two-organ donation is two to three years.

To speed the process, you may choose to seek a living kidney donation transplant and then wait to receive pancreas transplant surgery at a later date, a process called Pancreas After Kidney transplant. Pancreas After Kidney transplants yield lower long-term success rates than simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants, so discuss your options with your doctor. Today, most pancreas transplants involve a simultaneous kidney transplant, with both organs from a deceased donor; Pancreas After Kidney transplants are much less common, and pancreas transplant alone is rarer still.

During the simultaneous pancreas-kidney operation, your surgeon places the new pancreas in your lower right abdomen and your new kidney in the lower left abdomen. (Usually, the dysfunctional kidneys and pancreas are left in place.) Your new pancreas begins to produce insulin immediately and blood sugar falls to normal levels within hours.

Results

After simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant surgical recovery:

• You’ll no longer require insulin shots.
• You can begin eating a healthy, non-diabetic diet.
• You won’t have to worry about skipping a meal, exercising too much or experiencing bouts of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
• The pancreas may help slow or prevent other diabetic complications, including neuropathy and eye disease.
• You won’t require dialysis to filter wastes and balance electrolytes.
• The pancreas will protect your new kidney from possible recurrent diabetes.

Compared with kidney transplant alone, simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant involves a longer hospital stay, more frequent follow-up and additional potential complications. But given its exceptional success rate, simultaneous pancreas-kidney may just be the life-giving alternative you need to return to a full, active life.