Lyon. Diabetic, Christophe is the first in France to have benefited from this transplant

“I live again as a person who does not have diabetes.”

In August 2024, Christophe had the chance to be the first patient, in France, to benefit from a simultaneous kidney and pancreatic islet transplant (made up of insulin-producing cells) from the same donor.

A major breakthrough in the treatment of the autoimmune disease which the 52-year-old winemaker, originally from the Rhône, has suffered for twenty years and which unfortunately pushed him to the point of kidney failure.

Free from insulin shots and dialysis

After several years of dialysis due to his type 1 diabetes, Christophe is now free of an enormous weight thanks to the intervention of the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL).

No more need for dialysis, no more pain, soon free of insulin injections… The results of the new procedure he underwent are astonishing.

“I didn’t hesitate”

Catchy fewer complications than a double kidney and pancreas transplant and ensuring a faster recovery of the patient, the simultaneous kidney and pancreatic islet transplant also makes it possible to do everything during the same hospital stay and to have a single donor.

Until now, the kidney was in fact transplanted first and the islet transplant carried out only several months later, with cells from another donor. Last August, the two operations were able to take place less than 48 hours apart. “I didn’t hesitate,” Christophe recalls.

Limited lifespan for grafts

Three islet injections in total are nevertheless necessary to complete the protocol. Christophe only has one more to receive before declaring victory.

But the grafts have a limited lifespan (10 to 15 years for a kidney for example), the winemaker will undoubtedly have to go through all these stages again in the future. If he is well aware of it, the latter benefits, in the meantime, from the new chance that life has granted him.

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