The impact of delayed graft function after pancreas transplantation on clinical outcomes and survival

pDGF was defined as a total mean insulin requirement of 2.5 UI or greater within postoperative day 10. Of the 142 recipients, 52 (36.6 %) developed pDGF. By multivariate analysis, pDGF was found to be associated with a donor age (odds ratio, 1.05; 95 % CI: 1.01-1.09; p = 0.010) and the continuous postoperative administration of unfractioned heparin (odds ratio, 2.52; 95 % CI: 1.12-5.64; p = 0.025). The occurrence of pDGF lead to longer hospital stay (23 vs 20 days, p = 0.049), intensive care unit stay (5 vs 3 days, p < 0.003) and impaired glycemia at day 10 postoperative (146.0 vs 126.4 mg/dl, p < 0.001). Also, pDGF was found to be associated with a greater risk of pancreas graft failure at 5 years (p = 0.047) in the univariable analysis, while in the multivariable this trend was not statistically significant (p = 0.076). Of note, in the multivariable analysis pDGF showed a strong trend towards worse graft survival without reaching statistical significance (HR:2.33, 95 % CI: 0.95-5.82; p = 0.069) CONCLUSION: pDGF represents a common condition, depending both from donor and recipient conditions. Its clinical impact concerns the early postoperative stay and the long-term graft survival as well.