Risks from the donated pancreas

In general, pancreases from older donors do not tend to work for as long as organs from younger donors.

Although donor age is important, other donor factors are also important. Focusing on donor age alone can be misleading. Given that most transplants from older donors do well, it may still be better to have a transplant from an older donor than to stay on insulin on the waiting list.

If the donor was overweight, there may be fat deposits within the pancreas. This may increase the risk of inflammation in the pancreas after the transplant.

The longer the pancreas is kept in preservation fluid, the higher the chance that it will eventually fail. It is important that the pancreas is transplanted quite soon after it is removed from the deceased donor.

It is possible for donated pancreases (or kidneys) to pass on diseases such as infections or even cancer. It is very rare that serious diseases are passed on (less than a 1 in 1,000 chance). Unfortunately, no test can completely remove the risk of passing on a disease with a transplanted organ.

Some viral infections are very common in otherwise healthy people, including organ donors, and are unlikely to cause problems in the recipient. An example of this common type of viral infection is CMV (cytomegalovirus). You will be given tablets that can successfully treat CMV infection if it is passed on from the donor.

Learn more about the risk of infections

Sometimes, the transplant team may expect that the pancreas will be suitable to use for transplantation, but when it is removed from the donor, or when it arrives at the transplant centre, the situation maybe different. The pancreas may have been damaged during removal or there may be fat or scars in the pancreas that might make it less suitable to transplant. Your transplant team will tell you if they have any concerns about how the pancreas looks.

Sometimes, the donor’s kidneys may not be working well just before they die. In many cases these kidneys can then work very well in patients who receive them as simultaneous pancreas and kidney (SPK) transplants. 

When a kidney stops working suddenly, the problem is often reversible. This is called ‘acute kidney injury’ and these kidneys can often be transplanted safely with good results. In most cases (19 out of 20), these kidneys can then work very well in patients who receive them as transplants. Unfortunately, 1 in 20 do not.

Your transplant team will only accept such a kidney if they think that there is a good chance that the kidney will recover once it has been transplanted. 

Kidneys that have not worked well in the donor for a long time before their death, or where the donor is known to have kidney disease, are not used for kidney transplantation.