University Hospital Martin (UNM) successfully carried out the first simultaneous double organ transplant from a single donor to the same recipient in Slovakia. The deceased donor provided a kidney and pancreatic islets to a dialysis patient with type 1 diabetes, partially restoring insulin production.
"Simultaneous transplantation of a kidney and pancreas from a single donor is much more advantageous for the patient, as the body receives organs with the same genetic information, significantly reducing the risk of organ failure," said Ivana Dedinská, the head of the transplant-nephrology department at UNM.
The first successful recipient of the transplant is 46-year-old Lenka from Bytča. After the organs were retrieved from the donor, the kidney and pancreas were transplanted, and the pancreatic islets were isolated by Czech specialists at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM). Lenka is currently three months post-operation and only requires two units of short-acting insulin per day.
UNM aims to introduce this treatment as a systematic program in Slovakia, with about ten patients currently being prepared for the procedure.
Source: TASR
