Rare Transplant Combination Performed at UCI Medical Center

Doctors at UCI Medical Center have successfully transplanted a liver and a kidney and injected pancreatic islet cells into a 64-year-old diabetes patient.

The combination had been performed only three times worldwide. The surgery was the first time islet cells were transplanted at an Orange County hospital.

The patient, Jose Austin, had severe diabetes with multiple organ failure, officials said. While he needed a new liver and kidney, the injection of the islet cells set the operation apart.

Islet cells produce insulin in the body and reduce the amount of insulin diabetics have to inject.

Without the transplant, Austin would have died in six months, hospital officials said.

Austin is recovering at a daughter’s home in Aliso Viejo and is closely monitored.

“The implications of the triple transplant combination are very promising, particularly for diabetic transplant patients,” said Dr. David K. Imagawa, director of the liver transplantation program at the medical center in Orange.

The operation was performed July 2.