Long-Term Outcomes of Kidney and Simultaneous Pancreas–Kidney Transplantation in Recipients With Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus : Silesian Experience

• Pancreas transplantation reduces cardiovascular risk in diabetic renal transplant recipients.
• Kidney graft function is better in diabetic recipients of pancreas and kidney than kidney alone.
• Pancreas transplantation lowers the incidence of proteinuria in diabetic renal transplant recipients.

BackgroundKidney transplantation (KTx) markedly reduces mortality in patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) caused by type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The outstanding issue is whether transplantation should be limited only to KTx, with further insulinotherapy, or combined with pancreas transplantation in patients with ESKD/T1DM. The goal of this study was to compare the results of simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplantation (SPKTx) and deceased donor KTx and to identify factors affecting patient and kidney graft survival in patients with ESKD/T1DM.MethodsEighty-seven deceased donor KTx and 66 SPKTx operated on in the Silesia region of Poland between 1998 and 2013 were included in the retrospective analysis.ResultsDuring the mean 6.7 ± 3.6 years of follow-up, fewer cardiovascular episodes were observed in SPKTx recipients than in KTx recipients (1.5% vs 12.6%; P < .05). Five-year patient survival (80.7% in SPKTx vs 77.5% in KTx) and kidney graft survival (66.1% in SPKTx vs 70.4% in KTx) did not differ between study groups. There were no differences in patient survival (log-rank test, P = .99) or kidney graft survival (P = .99) based on Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis failed to identify factors explaining patient and kidney graft survival. Five-year pancreas graft survival was 58.9%. SPKTx recipients had significantly higher estimated glomerular filtration rates during the 7-year posttransplant period and less frequently developed proteinuria (6.1% vs 23%; P < .01).ConclusionsPancreas transplantation reduced cardiovascular risk and prevented the development of proteinuria but did not improve patient and kidney graft survival in recipients with T1DM in the 7-year follow-up period.