Pancreas transplantation: the donor’s side of the story

It is refreshing to see pancreas and islet transplantation receiving the international attention it urgently deserves in Dean and colleagues’ State of the Art Review.1 Improving knowledge and understanding of the potential benefits of pancreas transplantation among referring physicians is important, as current referral rates to UK pancreas transplantation centres are low and do not reflect the number of people that could benefit from surgical intervention. Dean’s review focuses on the indications for, and outcomes of, pancreas and islet transplantation.1 But this represents only the recipient’s half of the process and does not acknowledge the major challenges around donors. Pancreas donation comes almost exclusively from dead people, after brain or circulatory death. But two thirds of donor pancreases offered …