Pancreas Preservation using reduced volumes of celsior solution

Abstract

Objective: The University of Wisconsin solution is the standard preservation liquid for pancreas harvesting. The recently available Celsior solution offers new means to improve the graft preservation, despite of using higher solution volumes. The present work was designed to assess the efficacy of the Celsior solution when used in lower volumes for pancreas preservation. Methods: From January, 2001 to January, 2006, 60 patients were submitted to transplantation, 50 underwent simultaneous pancreas-kidney, and ten pancreas transplantation alone. The last ten consecutive patients received a graft procured with 800ml of the Celsior solution (eight simultaneous pancreas-kidney and two pancreas alone) which were the subject of this work. Result: The mean cold ischemia time was 11.43 +/- 2.9 hours. No primary endocrine non-function occurred, nor clinical graft pancreatitis. No pancreas was lost due to thrombosis. Two simultaneous pancreas-kidney recipients died after two and three months due to infection in the functioning grafts. After a minimum one month follow-up period (1-10 months), all other recipients were alive and well. Currently, eight recipients are insulin-free. Conclusion: These results provide good although indirect evidences that the Celsior solution is as safe as the UW solution in preventing post-reperfusion graft edema and pancreatitis when used in lower volumes for pancreas retrieval.