Long-term survival following simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation versus kidney transplantation alone in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and renal failure

Am J Kidney Dis. 2003 Feb;41(2):464-70. doi: 10.1053/ajkd.2003.50057.

Abstract

Background: Pancreas transplantation improves quality of life and prevents the progression of secondary complications of diabetes. Whether these benefits translate into a long-term survival advantage is not entirely clear.

Methods: Using the United Network for Organ Sharing database, we analyzed long-term survival in 18,549 patients with type 1 diabetes and renal failure who received a kidney transplant between 1987 and 1996. Patient survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Proportional hazards models were used to adjust for effects of differences in recipient and donor variables between simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplants (SKPTs) and kidney-alone transplants.

Results: SKPT and living donor kidney recipients had a significant crude survival distribution advantage over cadaver kidney transplant recipients (8-year survival rates: 72% for SKPT recipients, 72% for living donor kidney recipients, and 55% for cadaver kidney recipients). The survival advantage for SKPT recipients over cadaver kidney recipients diminished, but persisted after adjusting for donor and recipient variables and kidney graft function as time-varying covariates. SKPT recipients had a high mortality risk relative to living donor kidney recipients through 18 months posttransplantation (hazards ratio, 2.2; P < 0.001), but had a lower relative risk (hazard ratio, 0.86; P < 0.02) thereafter. In SKPT recipients, maintenance of a functioning pancreas graft was associated with a survival benefit.

Conclusion: The long-term survival of SKPT recipients is superior to that of cadaver kidney transplant recipients with type 1 diabetes. There is no difference in survival of SKPT recipients and living donor kidney recipients with type 1 diabetes at up to 8 years' follow-up; the former have a greater early mortality risk and the latter have a greater late mortality risk. Results of this study suggest that successful simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation is not only life enhancing, but life saving.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Cadaver
  • Cause of Death / trends
  • Cohort Studies
  • Databases, Factual / statistics & numerical data
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / complications
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / epidemiology
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / mortality
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / surgery*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Kidney Failure, Chronic / epidemiology
  • Kidney Failure, Chronic / etiology
  • Kidney Failure, Chronic / mortality
  • Kidney Failure, Chronic / surgery*
  • Kidney Transplantation / methods
  • Kidney Transplantation / mortality
  • Kidney Transplantation / statistics & numerical data*
  • Living Donors / statistics & numerical data
  • Male
  • Mortality / trends
  • Pancreas Transplantation / methods
  • Pancreas Transplantation / mortality
  • Pancreas Transplantation / statistics & numerical data*
  • Survival Analysis
  • Time Factors
  • Tissue Donors / statistics & numerical data