Pancreas Transplant

Pancreas-after-Kidney Transplant

A pancreas transplant is often performed after a patient recovers from living donor kidney transplantation. The pancreas must come from a cadaver donor and often there is a wait.

To help prevent problems related to the kidney failure, Mayo Clinic doctors encourage all kidney transplant candidates, including diabetics, to consider undergoing living-donor kidney transplantation. If a suitable living donor is available, the transplant can proceed at a time the patient chooses, before health problems might progress. In many cases, living-donor kidney transplantation allows recipients to avoid dialysis.

In diabetic patients who need kidney transplantation, a cadaver pancreas transplant is often performed as a separate operation after the patient has received a living donor kidney.