Islet treatment process urged for those with type 1 diabetes

A call has been made for the introduction of a potentially life-saving treatment for people with severe type 1 diabetes.

Islet transplantation has been available internationally for over 20 years, and Ireland is one of the few western European countries not to offer it.

The technique involves sucking the islets, containing the cells that make insulin, from a donor pancreas and injecting them into the patient’s liver.

Dr Diarmuid Smith, consultant endocrinologist at Beaumont Hospital, said islet transplantation had the potential to greatly improve the lives of over 1,000 people with the severest form of type 1 diabetes. Such patients with catastrophic hypoglycaemia suffer frequent collapses.

Up to now, the only treatment here has been a pancreas transplant, but this stalled since the performing surgeon retired.

“Most of our patients with type 1 can manage their diabetes well enough with daily insulin injections or using a pump, but for some, hypoglycaemia can be distressing, dangerous and can seriously compromise their quality of life.”

Ireland is a diabetes hotspot and the disease accounts for about 10 per cent of the health budget.