Laparoscopic Biopsies in Pancreas Transplantation.

As there is no precise laboratory test or imaging study for detection of pancreas allograft rejection, there is increasing interest in obtaining pancreas tissue for diagnosis. Pancreas allograft biopsies are most commonly performed percutaneously, transcystoscopically, or endoscopically, yet pancreas transplant surgeons often lack the skills to perform these types of biopsies. We have performed 160 laparoscopic pancreas biopsies in 95 patients. There were 146 simultaneous kidney-pancreas biopsies and 14 pancreas-only biopsies due to pancreas alone, kidney loss, or extraperitoneal kidney. Biopsies were performed for graft dysfunction (89) or per protocol (71). In 13 cases, an additional laparoscopic procedure was performed at the same operation. The pancreas diagnostic tissue yield was 91.2%; however, the pancreas could not be visualized in eight cases (5%) and in 6 cases the tissue sample was nondiagnostic (3.8%). The kidney tissue yield was 98.6%. There were four patients with intraoperative complications requiring laparotomy (2.5%) with two additional postoperative complications. Half of all these complications were kidney related. There were no episodes of pancreatic enzyme leak and there were no graft losses related to the procedure. We conclude that laparoscopic kidney and pancreas allograft biopsies can be safely performed with very high tissue yields.

Case report: pancreas graft with a duodenal complication rescued using total duodenectomy.

Simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation is the treatment of choice for type 1 diabetics with end-stage renal disease. Recently patients with type 2 diabetes have been considered for transplantation. Despite that the patient and graft survival rates have improved over the past years, it continues to be a procedure with high surgical complication rates. We herein report a case of a pancreatic graft with a duodenal complication rescued using a total duodenectomy, a procedure that is seldom used. A 57-year-old type 2 diabetic underwent a SPK transplantation with systemic-enteric drainage. He was converted to a Roux en Y at day 7 for a small duodenal fistula without peritonitis. At day 13, with good graft function, he presented with gastrointestinal and abdominal bleeding. At laparotomy he had a congestive duodenum with intraluminal bleeding and an anastomotic fistula. We performed a total duodenectomy with enteric drainage. The patient was discharged home on day 39 with a pancreatic fistula on intramuscular Octretotide that lasted for 3 months. He was never readmitted and has good pancreas and kidney function at 16 months of follow-up. We think this is an option to rescue a pancreas graft with duodenal complications in selected cases.