Contents:
- Medical Video: Can pancreas transplant fully cure Type 1 Diabetes? Dr. Goutham Kumar
- Can diabetes be cured?
- Who can do the pancreatic transplant procedure?
- How is this procedure done?
Medical Video: Can pancreas transplant fully cure Type 1 Diabetes? Dr. Goutham Kumar
Diabetes is a progressive disease, which means it will get worse with time. Until now, there is no medicine that can cure diabetes completely. Even so, that does not mean someone with diabetes cannot have normal blood sugar levels. Even if it can't be cured, diabetes can still be controlled. That means we can control blood sugar levels that flow in the body.
Controlling diabetes can be done by taking drugs and injecting insulin. However, before these two things are done, living a healthy lifestyle is the main step in controlling diabetes. Maintaining food intake and exercising diligently is proven to be able to control high blood sugar in diabetics.
When a person has diabetes, they usually have a disruption in producing insulin. The pancreas, as an insulin-producing organ, does not have the ability to produce insulin to spread to the body. This is caused by poor lifestyle in type two diabetes or because of autoimmune damage (in type 1 diabetes). In fact, insulin is needed to help enter glucose into the body so that it can be broken down into energy to carry out various activities.
Can diabetes be cured?
As explained earlier, diabetes cannot be cured, it can only be controlled. Even though it cannot be cured, type two diabetes patients can get rid of insulin injection dependence or drinking drugs by maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle. Unfortunately, not with type 1 diabetics.
Type 1 diabetics cannot escape insulin dependence. This is caused by beta cells in the pancreas which must be responsible for producing insulin which is damaged so that it is unable to produce insulin. As a result, the insulin supply for people with type 1 diabetes must be obtained from the outside, namely by injecting insulin.
However, in line with the development of increasingly advanced health technology, type 1 diabetics can begin to smile because of the emergence of new hopes for achieving recovery from diabetes. Healing for people with type 1 diabetes can be obtained through pancreatic transplantation. By performing a pancreatic transplant procedure, type 1 diabetes patients can be completely released from insulin injection dependence.
Who can do the pancreatic transplant procedure?
According to the American Diabetes Association, the pancreatic transplant procedure is the recommended treatment for people with type 1 diabetes. Although it provides positive results for type 1 diabetes, this procedure is not commonly used in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes occurs because the failure of the pancreas produces the amount of insulin needed by the body or doesn't even produce insulin at all. Although it has been diagnosed since childhood, type 1 diabetes patients usually do not immediately carry out this procedure. This is due to the risk of the operation that follows it.
As reported by Detik Health, a surgical consultant from Singapore General Hospital, Dr. Victor Lee explained, "Actually even without the pancreas the patient can still live. He can get an injection of insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. But clearly the quality of his life will be very disturbed. Moreover, diabetes is a major cause of kidney failure so patients need regular dialysis. "
How is this procedure done?
The process of pancreatic transplantation is done by relying on the organs of a deceased donor. Even though it is a recommended alternative, not all type 1 diabetes patients can immediately perform this procedure.
The procedure for pancreatic transplantation can be done if the type 1 diabetes suffered is accompanied by complications in the kidney. That way, the patient will immediately undergo two transplants at once, the pancreas and kidney. Also to be considered, those who are obese, HIV / AIDS, have a history of cancer, and consume alcohol and cigarettes cannot undergo this procedure.
To perform a pancreatic and kidney transplant procedure together, several tests are needed first. One of them is a match test between the donor organ and the donor recipient's body. The pancreatic and kidney organs obtained from the same donor have a lower risk of rejection. Although they have little risk of undergoing this transplant, the benefits that can be brought more, such as controlled blood sugar without consumption of insulin, repair of the nervous system that has been damaged, to avoid the risk of diabetes complications.
This procedure itself was first popular in the American and European regions. Doctor Victor Lee is the first doctor known to be able to perform a pancreatic transplant procedure in Singapore. However, until now pancreatic transplants have never been done in Indonesia.
