Surgery

Surgery for type 1 diabetes is done only in special situations.

• Surgery to replace the pancreas (pancreas transplant) may be done when a person is receiving another organ, such as a kidney.
• Surgery to insert working pancreas cells (islet cell transplant) is experimental.

These surgeries are very expensive. After having one of these surgeries, a person must take medicine for the rest of his or her life to prevent the body from rejecting the new tissue (immunosuppression medicines).