Outcomes for Islet Transplantation in Donation After Circulatory Death compared with Donation after Brain Death in Australia

Abstract

Introduction Islet cell transplantation has become a clinically accepted transplant technique providing long-term insulin independence, restoring normoglycaemia and treating T1D patient’s severe hypoglycaemic unawareness. Unfortunately, the significant lack of organ donors results in patients remaining on the waitlist for years. Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors have been reported by other groups as having up to 60% of selected DCD islet preparations proceed to transplant with similar outcomes to donation after brain death (DBD) organs. We review our isolation and transplantation outcomes from DCD donors and compare these to DBD donors over the same time period in the Australian ..