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World J Transplant. Dec 20, 2019; 9(8): 158-164
Published online Dec 20, 2019. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v9.i8.158
Challenges of pancreas transplantation in developing countries, exploring the Turkey example
Sanem Guler Cimen, Sertac Cimen, Nicos Kessaris, Eyup Kahveci, Acar Tuzuner
Sanem Guler Cimen, Department of General Surgery, Diskapi Research and Training Hospital, Health Sciences University, Ankara 65000, Turkey
Sertac Cimen, Department of Urology and Transplantation, Diskapi Research and Training Hospital, Health Sciences University, Ankara 65000, Turkey
Nicos Kessaris, Department of Nephrology and Transplantation, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom
Eyup Kahveci, Turkish Transplant Foundation, Ankara 65000, Turkey
Acar Tuzuner, Department of General Surgery, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara 65000, Turkey
Author contributions: Cimen SG and Cimen S wrote the article; Kahveci E, Kessaris N and Tuzuner A revised and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the Authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sanem Guler Cimen, FEBS, MD, MSc, Associate Professor, Department of General Surgery, Diskapi Research and Training Hospital, Health Sciences University, Guvenlik Caddesi no 87-6, Ankara 65000, Turkey. s.cimen@dal.ca
Telephone: +90-505-5251473 Fax: +90-216-3305759
Received: April 16, 2019
Peer-review started: April 19, 2019
First decision: June 7, 2019
Revised: November 7, 2019
Accepted: November 26, 2019
Article in press: November 26, 2019
Published online: December 20, 2019
Processing time: 248 Days and 14 Hours
Abstract

Pancreas transplantation significantly improves the quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes, primarily by eliminating the need for insulin and frequent blood glucose measurements. Despite the growing numbers of solid organ transplantations worldwide, number of pancreas transplantations in the developing countries` remain significantly low. This difference of pancreas transplantation practices was striking among the participating countries at the 1st International Transplant Network Meeting which was held in Turkey on 2018. In this meeting more than 40 countries were represented. Most of these counties were developing countries located in Africa, Middle East or Asia. The aim of this article is to identify the challenges and limiting factors for pancreas transplantations in these developing countries, by exploring the Turkish example. The challenges faced by the developing countries are broadly classified in four categories; wait-listing, donor pool, team work and follow up. Under these categorical titles, issues are further discussed in detail, giving examples from Turkish practice of pancreas transplantation. Additionally, several solutions to these challenges have been proposed- some of which have already been undertaken by the Turkish Ministry of Health. With the insight and methods presented in this article, pancreas transplantation should be made possible for the potential recipients in the developing countries.

Keywords: Pancreas transplantation; Challenges; Transplantation; Quality of life; Developing country

Core tip: With the insight and methods presented in this article, pancreas transplantation should be made possible for the potential recipients in the developing countries. This short communication attempts to summarize the expert discussions on pancreas transplantation occurring during the 1st International Transplant Meeting involving more than 40 countries’ representatives.