Guest guest Posted September 17, 2003 Report Share Posted September 17, 2003 Posted on Wed, Sep. 17, 2003 Hospital to offer pancreas transplants By M. Perotin Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - Baylor All Saints Medical Center, which last year launched Tarrant County's only liver transplant program, now is adding pancreas transplants to its services. The Fort Worth hospital has won approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing to carry out the procedure, and doctors will probably perform their first pancreas transplant this fall, said Dr. Marlon Levy, surgical director of Baylor All Saints' transplant program. " I think it's a step forward, " Levy said. " You now have to leave the community to do that, oftentimes to Dallas but sometimes other places. " Pancreas transplants typically are performed on patients with Type 1 diabetes, often in conjunction with a kidney transplant. The disease, also known as juvenile diabetes, is prompted by the pancreas' failure to produce insulin, the hormone that allows people to use sugar as fuel. It afflicts more than 1 million people in the United States. The pancreas transplants, from deceased donors, will become the latest addition to the year-old transplant program at Baylor All Saints, where doctors have performed 39 kidney transplants and 26 liver transplants since last summer. Methodist Fort Worth hospital has been performing kidney transplants for about a decade. But executives there previously have said they don't intend to expand their program to compete head-to-head with Baylor All Saints in the transplant arena. Pancreas recipients usually are young diabetics who have suffered some complications of the disease, Levy said. " To be able to have a working pancreas means they can do away with all their insulin shots, " Levy said. " They have far greater freedom of activity, and they feel a lot better. " Still, transplant recipients do have to take drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting the pancreas. Some researchers are trying transplants of insulin-producing islet cells as an alternative. Levy expects to lead a research trial of that treatment later this year at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- M. Perotin, mperotin@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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