All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi (AIIMS Delhi) has successfully revived its simultaneous kidney-pancreas (SPK) transplant programme after an 18-year gap by performing a rare and highly complex dual-organ transplant on a 30-year-old patient from Haryana.
The patient suffered from end-stage kidney failure caused by long-standing Type 1 diabetes. Through the combined transplant, doctors aimed to treat both diabetes and kidney disease simultaneously, potentially eliminating the need for lifelong insulin therapy and dialysis.
According to AIIMS officials, the patient underwent surgery on April 14 and is currently stable with good graft function and near-normal blood sugar levels requiring only minimal insulin support.
Doctors Successfully Handle a High-Risk Case
The patient had developed multiple severe diabetic complications, including neuropathy, retinopathy, and cardiomyopathy. Additionally, his heart’s ejection fraction had dropped to just 25%, making the surgery particularly challenging.
Despite these risks, the medical team completed the transplant in nearly two-and-a-half hours. Soon after the procedure, the patient’s blood sugar levels improved significantly, while kidney function stabilised without the need for further dialysis. Doctors later discharged the patient after approximately two weeks of recovery.
AIIMS Builds on Earlier Historic Transplants
AIIMS Delhi had previously performed only two simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplants. In 2004, the institute carried out India’s first successful SPK transplant on a Type 1 diabetes patient, Sagar Aggarwal. Later, in 2008, doctors performed another successful dual transplant on Delhi-based patient Mohammad Nadeem.
Doctors had reported that both patients became free from insulin injections and dialysis following their surgeries.
Multidisciplinary Team Led the Complex Procedure
Prof V K Bansal and Prof Asuri Krishna led the latest transplant procedure along with Dr Sanjeet Rai and Dr Sushant Soren. In addition, renal transplant specialists Prof Ashish Sharma and Dr Deepesh from Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER Chandigarh) supported the surgery.
As reported by TOI, the multidisciplinary team brought together experts from surgery, nephrology, endocrinology, and anaesthesiology. The anaesthesia team included Prof Rahul and Dr Nishant, while Prof Dipankar Bhowmik and Prof Sandeep Mahajan provided nephrology support. Prof Nikhil Tandon contributed endocrinology expertise during the treatment process.
Organ Retrieval Required Extensive Coordination
Unlike kidney transplants, pancreas transplantation presents additional challenges because doctors cannot use organs from living donors. Instead, the procedure requires organs from a brain-dead cadaver donor.
In this case, the organs came from a 50-year-old brain-dead donor at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS Rohtak).
AIIMS teams travelled overnight to retrieve the organs. Simultaneously, coordination among National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), Organ Retrieval Banking Organization (ORBO), Haryana Police, and Delhi Police helped create a green corridor to transport the organs rapidly to Delhi.
Pancreas Transplantation Remains Technically Demanding
Doctors described pancreas transplantation as one of the most technically difficult organ transplant procedures. Since the pancreas is extremely soft and delicate, surgeons must handle it with exceptional precision during retrieval and transplantation.
Even minor damage can lead to serious complications such as pancreatitis, bleeding, or graft failure.
According to doctors, only five or six medical centres in India currently perform pancreas transplants actively. So far, specialists estimate that India has conducted only around 150 to 200 such procedures.
At present, AIIMS Delhi has approximately 8 to 10 patients waiting for simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation.
Long-Term Care Remains Crucial After Surgery
Doctors also emphasised that post-operative care remains critical after transplantation. Since recipients must take lifelong immunosuppressive medicines to prevent organ rejection, they remain highly vulnerable to infections.
However, specialists noted that successful pancreas-kidney transplantation can dramatically improve the lives of patients with severe Type 1 diabetes. In many cases, patients become almost completely insulin-independent and regain a near-normal quality of life after surgery.