Pancreas & Pancreas-Kidney Transplant

What is a Pancreas & Pancreas-Kidney Transplant?

A pancreas transplant replaces a diseased pancreas with a healthy one from a donor—usually someone who has passed away without pancreas injury. In some cases, a portion of the pancreas may come from a living donor. Because type 1 diabetes often damages kidney function, many patients receive both a pancreas and kidney transplant together.

There are three types of pancreas transplants:

Pancreas-only transplant – For people with healthy kidneys (≈ 85 % remain insulin-free after 1 year)
Pancreas-after-kidney transplant – For people who already had a kidney transplant (≈ 70 % insulin-free after 1 year) .
Simultaneous kidney–pancreas transplant (SPK) – For those needing both organs (≈ 60 % insulin-free after 1 year)

Transplanting both kidney and pancreas lowers the risk of pancreas failure—making SPK the most common option.

Video: UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital offers comprehensive transplant care for adults and children.

UR Medicine's Approach

The University of Rochester founded the biopsychosocial model, which treats the whole patient rather than just disease. We consider all your life circumstances, personalizing your treatment based on what’s best for you. This includes providing a transplant psychiatrist and social worker who look after your mental and emotional health.

Our experienced providers work together to get the best results for our patients. Our surgeons and physician care for you, as well as your family. They build a relationship with you, and truly care about you as a person.

What to Expect

Eligibility

Most suitable for adults under 50 with severe type 1 diabetes—especially those with kidney issues. Requires screening for overall health, infection status, and ability to follow care plans.

Surgery & Recovery

Pancreas-only surgery: Surgery takes approximately 2–4 hours
Simultaneous kidney–pancreas transplant (SPK)S: Surgery takes approximately 5–7 hours
If from a deceased donor, organ must be transplanted within 12–15 hours urmc.rochester.edu
Hospital stay is typically 7–14 days, starting in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
Risks include blood clots, bleeding, infection, leakage at surgical connections, pancreatitis, and organ rejection.

Long-Term Care

Lifelong medications suppress the immune system to prevent rejection—raising infection and cancer risks.

Routine monitoring of blood sugar, organ function, and medication side effects is essential.

What Sets Us Apart?

We are pioneers in transplantation in Upstate New York. UR Medicine has the only heart transplant program, the only liver transplant program, and the only live-donor liver transplant program in Upstate New York. And our outcomes are among the best in the nation.

We aim to make this process as simple and stress-free as possible for patients and their families. For patients traveling from out of town, we have partnerships with local organizations that provide your family with affordable places to stay, such as the Hope Lodge and Harbor House.

It takes a team to perform a transplant. We have a team of expert surgeons from all over the world. As a United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) transplant center for adult and pediatric transplant surgery, Strong Memorial Hospital reports all data to UNOS. You can see the excellent outcomes of our transplantation program by visiting the following websites: