Procurement of both liver and whole pancreas/duodenum allografts from a single donor without the use of interposition vascular grafts on transplantation

Access to cadaver donors for whole pancreas/duodenum grafts is limited in institutions where there are active liver transplant programs because (1) of the common vascular supply to the liver and pancreas and (2) the priority of life-saving liver transplantation over pancreas transplantation. Previous descriptions of liver and pancreas harvest from a single donor have involved either transplantation of the tail of the pancreas based on the splenic artery and vein or transplantation of the entire pancreas only after reconstruction of the major pancreatic vessels with iliac interposition grafts because the celiac artery and/or portal vein had been used for the liver allograft. We have procured a liver and whole pancreas from a single adult donor and successfully transplanted these organs into two separate recipients without an interposition vascular graft that might predispose the low flow pancreas allograft to thrombosis.