M.E. Finch – illustratör

Although pancreas transplants have been performed for more than 30 years, the last few years have witnessed significant growth in the options available for pancreas transplantation. Transplantation of the Pancreas, edited by Drs. Gruessner and Sutherland provides a state-of-the-art, definitive reference work on pancreas transplantation for transplant surgeons and physicians as well as for endocrinologists, diabetologists, nephrologists, and neurologists. The editors, from the renowned University of Minnesota Transplant Division and the Diabetes Institute, have assembled a group of renowned experts to provide an all-inclusive overview of pancreas transplantation. The text features insights on the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus and the limitations of nontransplant treatments, highlights experimental research and clinical history of pancreas transplantation, and compares and contrasts different surgical procedures. The discussions detail the broad spectrum of post-transplant complications and their treatments, which frequently require skills in general, vascular, and laparoscopic surgery; interventional radiology; critical care; and infectious disease. Chapters on pretransplant evaluation, immunosuppression, immunology, pathology, long-term outcome, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness focus on issues unique to pancreas recipients. Evolving areas, such as pretransplant evaluation of pancreas transplant candidates, living donation, and the current status of islet transplantation are discussed. Augmented by more than 280 illustrations, including full color line drawings created exclusively for the text, this book is the standard reference for all transplant professionals as well as for all physicians caring for the transplant patient.

This book is a compilation of common and uncommon surgical and ancillary techniques that we have found useful in the multiorgan transplantation pro­ gram at the University of Minnesota. Descriptions of these techniques are not available at a single source elsewhere. Use the book as a teaching aid, a source of workable techniques, and as a reference for individuals with relatively little experience in a particular area of transplantation. Because of the varying levels of expertise of our readers, vascular access is described in exquisite detail, as it is aimed at an audience of individuals who want to learn the fine points about how to prolong the function of shunts. The chapter on organ preservation is aimed at the surgeon or beginning technician who must learn how to do it from scratch--even the catalogue numbers of the necessary equipment are included. In contrast the chapters on heart, liver, and pancreas transplantation, while omitting fine points of suture technique, concentrate on the essential principles and safeguards. Individuals contemplating such transplants are presumably already schooled in the fine points of surgical technique. The chapters on cadaver organ donation are perhaps the most innovative. They represent our attempt to reorganize organ donation in a way that will provide the greatest usefulness of each donor as a source for multiple organs for transplantation. We hope that the book will become available to centers that, while not performing liver, pancreas, or heart transplants, wish to serve as donation centers.