Solitary pancreas transplantation: a review of the UK experience over a period of 10 yr.

Background: The aim of this study was to see whether lessons could be learned from the prospectively maintained nationwide database on solitary pancreas transplantation (SPTx) performed in the UK.

Methods: Two hundred and forty-five SPTx were utilized from the 2004-2013 period (113 pancreas transplant alone and 132 pancreas after kidney). The statistical analysis included donor, recipient, transplant variables, and the effect of a rejection episode on graft survival.

Results: Cold ischemia time (CIT), CIT > 12 h, donor body mass index (BMI) > 30, and non-lymphocyte-depleting induction immunosuppression achieved p-value <0.05 in the unadjusted univariate hazard model analysis. In a multivariate analysis, variables that persisted in demonstrating increased independent risk included CIT > 12 h (hazard ratio [HR] 1.94, p = 0.035) and the use of non-depleting induction immunosuppression (HR 1.95, p = 0.002). Factors such as bladder-drained grafts and donor variables including age, BMI, and donation after cardiac death (DCD) vs. donation after brain-stem death did not attain significance. Rejection reduces the overall graft survival by approximately 1000 d (1841 ± 114 d vs. 915 ± 119 d, p = 0.001).

Conclusions: Cold ischemia time <12 h and the use of depleting antibodies as induction immunosuppression have a positive effect on pancreas allograft survival. Other factors such as bladder-drained grafts and donor variables such as age, BMI, and DCD status did not attain significance in a multivariate analysis.