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Functioning Pancreas Successfully Implanted in Patient's Arm to Prevent Diabetes
After surgeons removed Wanda Prouty’s pancreas, they implanted the islet cells into her left arm to help prevent brittle diabetes that often occurs after this surgery. This is the first time this has been done in North America, and early results are very promising.
Prouty is still taking a small amount of insulin while the transplanted cells are given time to become fully functional.
Islets, small clusters of cells that produce insulin to regulate blood sugars, reside in the pancreas. With the total removal of the pancreas due to chronic pancreatitis, patients lose all islets and their bodies cannot produce insulin, resulting in an immediate and advanced, “brittle” stage of type I diabetes.
“In the past, patients who had their pancreases removed had to learn to manage the resulting brittle diabetes, which comes with a 25 percent death rate over five years,” said Dr. Craig Fischer, Methodist surgeon specializing in diseases of the pancreas.
Last month Fischer removed Prouty’s pancreas due to painful chronic pancreatitis. From the operating room, the pancreas was brought to The Methodist Hospital’s islet lab, where the islets were extracted, then Dr. Osama Gaber, head of the transplant division at Methodist, implanted the islets into the patient's arm, where they will function naturally, preventing diabetes altogether. This procedure is called an “autologous” islet transplant because a donor organ is not used, but rather the patient’s own islets. Islets are typically injected into a patient’s liver, however this patient had indications of slight liver damage prior to surgery, so the arm was chosen as a stronger alternative site for the islets.
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10/03/2008
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Thank You Lori Lund