A 30-year-old man, who had been living with diabetes for almost 20 years and had been on dialysis for the last two, got a new lease of life as AIIMS Delhi performed a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant from a deceased donor. This was the first such procedure at the institute after 18 years.

The complex, life-saving surgery saved the patient, who had been suffering from end-stage renal disease as a result of his long-standing Type 1 diabetes mellitus, a condition where both kidney failure and insulin-dependent diabetes severely impact quality of life. The donor was a 50-year-old deceased brain-dead donor from PGI Rohtak.

According to Dr Asuri Krishna, professor, department of surgery at AIIMS Delhi, the transplant offers the dual benefit of restoring kidney function while also achieving insulin independence, thereby significantly improving long-term outcomes. “The patient now requires only a very small amount of insulin, mainly because of steroid medicines used for immunosuppression after the transplant. His quality of life has improved significantly. He was unable to walk before the surgery but now he can without much of a struggle,” he said.

A pancreas-kidney transplant (often called a Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney or SPK transplant) is a surgical procedure that transplants a healthy pancreas and a kidney into a patient at the same time. It is primarily performed on individuals with advanced chronic kidney disease or kidney failure caused by Type 1 diabetes. Both organs are usually obtained from a single deceased donor, although sometimes a living donor provides the kidney while the pancreas comes from a deceased donor.

“The goal is to provide a working pancreas that produces insulin (reversing diabetes) and a working kidney (stopping the need for dialysis). The surgery offers a dual advantage because the same medicines used to prevent rejection after a kidney transplant also work for the pancreas transplant.

Source: The Indian Express - May 14,2026