Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant compared with kidney transplant in Type I diabetic patients with end-stage renal disease

IN OUR SECTIONS, diabetic nephropathy as a result of diabetes mellitus type I is the etiology of terminal renal insufficiency in 6% of patients on a dialysis program and in 8.7% of kidney transplant patients. This group of patients can benefit from a combined pancreas-kidney transplant (PKT), rather than an isolated kidney transplant (KT). This type of transplant eliminates the need for dialysis and therapy with insulin, as well as stabilizes retinopathy, neuropathy, and diabetic nephropathy. The aim of this article is to compare the results of PKT with those of isolated KT in patients with terminal renal insufficiency secondary to mellitus diabetes type I, assessing the number of rejections, kidney graft function, kidney and pancreas graft survival and patient survival during the first 2 posttransplant years.