The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago has an outstanding kidney-pancreas transplant program dedicated to providing optimal healthcare to its patients. Kidney-pancreas transplantation may be an option in patients who have insulin-dependent diabetes and kidney failure. Our Transplant Center is one of the nation's leaders in offering living related kidney-pancreas transplantation.
Before transplantation, patients are evaluated by a board-certified diabetologist/endocrinologist and a group of diabetes educators in our American Diabetes Association certified Diabetes Center. The Center's specialized programs can be individualized to help patients understand and maintain diabetes control while waiting for a transplant.
Types Kidney-Pancreas Transplant
There are two types of kidney-pancreas transplant surgeries available to patients living with insulin-dependent diabetes:
Living-donor transplant
A living-donor transplant is when a living person gives an organ to a person in need. The donor can be blood-related or non-blood related. Studies have shown that living donor transplantation can be more successful than deceased donor. A living donor organ is transplanted immediately versus a deceased donor organ that has been out of the donor for a longer period of time. Having a living donor also can drastically shorten the waiting time, allowing the recipient to be transplanted sooner.
At the Transplant Center, we also have several new techniques that allow people to be living donors who may not have been qualified in the past. These methods include paired donation and transplantation of blood type incompatible donors.
Deceased-donor transplant
A deceased donor transplant is when a person is diagnosed with brain death and the immediate family has given consent for his/her organs to be donated for transplantation. After the organs are retrieved from the donor and found to be a suitable match, it is transported to our Medical Center.
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