<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>A new surgical method of treating patients with unstable insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD) has been
developed-that of surgically shunting pancreatic blood into the systemic blood flow with the purpose of
creating a more optimal interaction of subcutaneously administered insulin and pancreas-secreted
glucagon.</p> <p>The long term results of the operation depend on the patency of a splenorenal anastomosis. This has
been studied by following up 137 patients over periods from half a year to three years. Anastomotic
patency was determined by renal and splenic venography and celiacy arteriography, which revealed a
patent anastomosis in 114 patients, and an obliterated one in 23.</p> <p>Patients with patent anastomoses showed a lowering of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA<sub>lc</sub>) from
13.3±0.03% to 9.3±0.6%, p&lt;0.05, a decrease of the injected insulin dose from 0.97±0.04 to 0.72±0.03 U/ kg, p&lt;0.05, disappearance or considerable abatement of pain in the lower extremities, and of hypoglycemia. Improvement of clinical status was accompanied by an increase of glucagon in the systemic blood stream from 60.8±10.1 to 91.5±9.4 pg/ml, p&lt;0.05, a rise of tissue oxygen pressure, PO<sub>2</sub>, from 49.2±2.4 to 58.1±1.9 mm Hg, p&lt;0.05. In patients with oblivious anastomoses postoperative HbA<sub>lc</sub> levels did not change from preoperative values: 12.9±0.4% and 12.8±0.7%, p&lt;0.05, respectively; the insulin dose remained the same-0.91 ±0.07 U/kg and 0.85±0.07 U/kg, p&lt;0.05, no rise of the systemic blood glucagon content was noted, and former complaints continued.</p> <p>The suggested method is not an alternative for insulin therapy, but considerably enhances its potential.</p>
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HPB Surg. 1996; 9(4):191-197