Pancreas transplantation: differences in activity between Europe and the United States

Background. Although pancreas transplantation (PT) is the treatment of choice in selected diabetic patients, the International Pancreas Transplant Registry (IPTR) has reported important differences in activity between USA and Europe. Of all cases reported, 75% are from USA and only 23% from Europe. Therefore, an analysis of PT activity in selected European countries (SEC) and USA was performed. Materials and methods. We compared national data reports (2002–06) of deceased donors (DD) and deceased solid organ transplantation (DSOT), with special attention to PT activity from 13 SEC countries (375 million inhabitants) and USA (298 million inhabitants). Results. The number of PT performed in USA was 2-fold higher than in SEC, with the annual rate >2.4 times higher in USA [5.08–4.64 versus 1.61–1.91 per million population (p.m.p.)]. DD and other DSOT activity rates were only slightly higher in USA. In SEC, important differences in PT activity rate were found between countries in the same year (0–6.21 p.m.p.) and in the same country between different years (6.21–2.47 p.m.p.), unrelated to DD or other DSOT activity rate. PT activity rate increased in SEC from 1.61 to 1.91 p.m.p. but decreased in six countries. The waiting list for PT at the end of 2006 was almost 2-fold higher in USA than in SEC. Conclusions. Differences in PT activity rate between 13 SEC countries and USA were not related to DD or other DSOT activity. Different waiting list inclusion criteria or incidence of diabetes complications may be considered in more specific studies.