Donation After Circulatory Arrest in Pancreas Transplantation: A Report of 10 Cases

Abstract

Introduction Transplantation of pancreas allografts procured from donation after circulatory death (DCD) remains uncommon. This study reviews a series of pancreas transplants at a single center to assess the donor and recipient characteristics for DCD pancreas transplant and to compare clinical outcomes.

Methods DCD procurement was performed with a 5-minute wait time from pronouncement of death to first incision. In 2 patients, tissue plasminogen activator was infused as a thrombolytic during the donor flush. All kidney grafts were placed on pulsatile perfusion.

Results There were 606 deceased donor pancreas transplants, 596 standard donors and 10 DCD donors. Of the 10 DCD transplants, 6 were simultaneous pancreas-kidney and 4 were pancreas transplant alone. The average time from incision to aortic cannulation was less than 3 minutes. The median total ischemia time for the DCD grafts was 5.4 hours, compared with 8.0 hours for standard donors (P = .15). Median length of hospital stay was 7 days for both groups, and there were no episode of acute cellular rejection in the first year post-transplant for the DCD group (4.2 % for standard group, P = .65). There was no difference in early or late graft survival, with 100% graft survival in the DCD group up to 1 year post-transplant. Ten-year Kaplan-Meier analysis shows similar graft survival for the 2 groups (P = .92).

Conclusions These results support the routine use of carefully selected DCD pancreas donors. There were no differences in graft function, postoperative complications, and early and late graft survival.