Successful Islet Transplantation

Clinical islet transplantation is gaining acceptance as a potential therapy, particularly for subjects who have labile diabetes or problems with hypoglycemic awareness. The risks of the procedure and long-term outcomes are still not fully known. We have performed 54 islet transplantation procedures on 30 subjects and have detailed follow-up in 17 consecutive Edmonton protocol-treated subjects who attained insulin independence after transplantation of adequate numbers of islets. Subjects were assessed pretransplant and followed prospectively posttransplant for immediate and long-term complications related to the procedure or immunosuppressive therapy. The 17 patients all became insulin independent after a…