Edinburgh Surgeon To Carry Out The First Islet Cell Transplants In Type 2 Diabetes Patients
Murat Akyol, a pioneering Edinburgh based surgeon is planning to carry out life-saving operations on diabetics in the Capital. The operation, if successful will be able to vastly improve their quality of life and in some cases actually saving it.
Akyol is to carry out the first islet cell transplants, which will be given to the type One diabetes sufferers whose bodies react badly to insulin injections. Mr Akyol already carried out the only pancreatic transplant in Scotland, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and has recently conducted his 100th operation there since starting in 2002.
The islet cells make up only about three per cent of the pancreas but are vital as they produce insulin naturally, which helps the body digest food. Patients are only referred for the pancreatic transplant when their kidney fails – usually after they have been living with Type One diabetes for 20 years – at which point they have both transplants in one operation. This is because the process of getting the body to accept new organs is fraught with difficulty and requires the patient to take immunosuppression drugs for the rest of their lives.
Doctors said that the patients who have this transplant will generally be younger (than pancreas transplant patients). They will have different problems because of diabetes than kidney failure, and will not have diabetes for 20-25 years.
Source: news.scotsman.com
