End to Daily Shots or Unremitting Blood Tests – New Transplant Treatment for Diabetes

A new-fangled transplant treatment for diabetes could spell the end to insulin shots for controlling diabetes and preventing grave hypoglycaemic episodes.

Diabetes is a prevalent long-standing condition wherein glucose levels in blood are quite soaring due to the body’s inability of appropriately using it. This occurs due to pancreas inept at producing any or adequate insulin.

Due to dearth of insulin for transporting glucose to other organs, the elevated blood glucose levels could have a damaging effect on the tissues and could cause sightlessness, failed kidney functioning, cardiac attack, limbs might need to be amputated and stroke.

People with dangerously low blood glucose levels need hospitalization for treating them.

Several individuals need to take lifelong daily insulin injections for which they have to compute the amount of glucose they would require for processing glucose in food that could be tricky task for gauging. However, it appears to work for half the diabetics having hypoglycaemia problems and recommended dosage for some people could be increased.

Excess insulin could lead to hypoglycaemia attack, when blood glucose levels plummet to dangerous lows that could cause coma and also fatality. The caveat indications of hypoglycaemia attack are extreme starvation pains and blurred eyesight. In other situations, several diabetics have been observed to pass into a coma without prior caveats.

Finger-pierce test are the norm for diabetics to check on their blood glucose levels. In this test, a blood droplet drawn following perforation to a finger tip that is to be placed on a strip that shows blood glucose levels and amount of insulin needed for injection.

But, irrespective of how meticulously one tries to do the finger-prick test, it is difficult in gauging precisely the amount of insulin required. Often the quantity and the instances when one eats, sleeps and exercises could all influence this.

Pump therapy is a form of treatment for diabetes wherein insulin delivery is done via catheter which is placed underneath the skin. The diabetic self-administers the insulin dosage when pressure is applied to the pump.

Pancreas transplant procedure is a major procedure at times recommended to diabetics wherein the pancreas which have insulin-producing cells are transplanted. Recuperation period following this surgery is about 3-6 months.

Islet cell transplantation is another kind of treatment for diabetes wherein insulin-producing islet cells rather than the complete pancreas is transplanted. Associated risks comprise of life-long immunosuppressant intake for stopping the body from discarding the donor cells, leaving them prone to turning anaemic, becoming cancerous or developing infection.

The lifespan of donor cells is 1-5 years and there is mostly shortage of donors. Hence, in case diabetics have critical issues due to hypoglycaemia then another transplantation procedure would be recommended.

Islet cell transplantation procedure is a thirty-minute lasting method wherein a dye in injected intravenously that is leading to the liver so that it appears on the X-rays. A needle is then inserted inside the vein and the islet cells delivered to the patient. The islet cells then stay in the liver and start producing insulin.

This procedure wipes out the monotonous need of day-to-day monitoring or shots and no more hypoglycaemia attacks or chances of the patients passing into coma is also eliminated.

Popularity: 2% [?]