What is the success rate in a pancreas transplant?
You can check out the statistics at www.unos.org. It can be a little confusing to navigate, by try searching for “graft survival”. Data->View Data Reports->National->survival->pancreas I have friends who have had their pancreases for 20 years! Of course back then they didn’t do pancreas alone transplants, so they were a part of a kidney/pancreas transplant. Technically I think the stats are pretty bad – only 50% after 5 years. However it is important to note that the drugs are improving all of the time, and many of the failures happen in the first year after transplant in what are known as technical failures – eg. blood clot as opposed to rejection. There are side effects of course of the meds – the immunosuppressants – that make pancreas transplant NOT A CURE, just another treatment, that may or may not last.
