About Us

The International Pancreas Transplant Registry (IPTR) is located at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, under the direction of David E.R. Sutherland, M.D., Ph.D.

The IPTR maintains a database of all reported pancreas transplants worldwide. In cooperation with over 200 centers, the pretransplant and posttransplant courses of nearly 24,000 patients who have received pancreas transplants are followed. Biostatistical analyses are performed regularly and the results are published or presented at international and national scientific meetings.

History of the IPTR

In 1987, the IPTR was contracted with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to collect the data on U.S. pancreas transplants for the Scientific Studies Committee of UNOS. This led to organization of a UNOS/U.S. Pancreas Transplant Registry. The IPTR today is supported primarily by the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by the UNOS.

Prior to the organization of the IPTR, The American College of Surgeons (ACS) maintained an Organ Transplant Registry supported by the NIH until June 30, 1977, with receipt of information on 57 pancreas transplants in 55 patients.

The International Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Registry (IPITR) was founded at a meeting on Pancreas and Islet Transplantation held in Lyon, France in 1980. It was initially sponsored by the Scientific Studies Committee of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) and was organized in the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota.

Since then, the IPTR has contacted known transplant institutions throughout the world; it is believed that nearly all pancreas transplants performed in the world since 1966 are recorded in the IPTR.

The original goal of the IPTR was to collect information on both pancreas and islet cell transplants. However, with the growth in pancreas transplantation data, the responsibility for the records of the islet cell transplantation component was transferred in 1987 as the International Islet Transplant IPTR (ITR) to Konrad Federlin, M.D., Ph.D, Reinhard Bretzel, M.D., Ph.D., and Bernhard Hering, M.D. at the University of Giessen, in Germany. Mathias Brendel, M.D. is now the Registry Coordinator at ITR. In 1996, Dr. Bernhard Hering joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota and a North American Islet Transplant Registry office was established here.

Today, the IPTR continues to maintain a close working relationship with UNOS, ITR, NIDDK/NIH, Eurotransplant, and other registries throughout the world.