But, the surgery itself is extremely complex, and the therapy that's needed to prevent the body from attacking and destroying the transplant is even more complicated. It's been commented by patients who have had transplants, that taking the anti-rejection medications is worse than having diabetes! Generally, pancreas transplants are therefore advised only for people with diabetes with some degree of problems from diabetic complications.

And transplanting a piece of pancreas is not a cure for diabetes, since putting a piece of someone else's pancreas into a person with diabetes doesn't do anything about the autoimmune process that caused the diabetes in the first place. There's still a lot of worry that if the autoimmune process is reactivated, the beta-cells of the transplant may be damaged or destroyed.

Many times in the past, a hospital has tried one or two pancreas transplants, but I would strongly advise anyone interested in learning more about this procedure to contact one of the few medical centers that have a long track record, with publications that discuss their success (and failure) rate.

Islet cell transplantation (removing the islets which contain the beta cells from a donor pancreas, and later putting these islets into a person with diabetes) is presently actively undergoing evaluation. Although transplanting islet cells may one day help people with diabetes, it must be emphasized that this procedure is still in the research stage. (See below for more links to islet cell transplantation research information.)