Level of acceptance of islet cell and kidney xenotransplants by personnel of hospitals with and without experience in clinical xenotransplantation.

Background: Recently, significant progress in both safety and efficacy has been achieved in the field of xenotransplantation, as exemplified by results from the first clinical trials of porcine islet transplantation. It would be of interest to learn whether the attitude of the clinical staff involved in such trials changes as the trials are carried out in their own hospital.

Methods: One hundred and four clinical staff members from the Eva Peron Hospital of San Martin (Buenos Aires, Argentina) where clinical trials of islet xenotransplantation have been performed and 92 similar staff members from the Diego Thompson Hospital (Buenos Aires, Argentina) where no such xenotransplantation has been carried out participated in the study.