Is Pancreas Transplantation for Insulin-Dependent Diabetics Worthwhile?

Insulin-dependent diabetes is an unpleasant chronic illness in which patients must steer a course between opposing evils. In the short term, moderate hyperglycemia causes little discomfort, but after 20 or more years it may result in blindness, renal failure, neuropathy, and arterial disease. By contrast, those who aim for normoglycemia are at constant risk of hypoglycemia, and the strain of their regimen may disrupt their lives.Some patients do relatively well and have few complications after 50 years, whereas others have devastating disabilities in early adult life. Predicting the course of an individual patient is an inexact business; epidemiologists know . . .