Living Donor Pancreas Transplants: Donor Selection and Risk Minimization

Purpose of Review In this study, our goal was to analyze nearly 4 decades of experience since the first living donor pancreas transplant in 1979, focusing on what constitutes optimal donor selection and ideal post donation follow-up. When combined with a living donor kidney transplant, a living donor pancreas transplant offers patients with concurrent renal failure and diabetes the option of a single procedure: a living donor simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant. Living donor SPK transplants not only can reduce the waiting time in areas where it is long but also, for highly sensitized patients, can electively identify a donor with a negative crossmatch.