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Special diabetes treatment now available to Scottish patients
19 Nov 2009
Diabetes patients in Scotland will no longer have to journey to England to receive special treatment.
This comes after a joint announcement by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, Edinburgh University and the Lothian Health Board, which said yesterday (November 18th) that they can begin offering a new treatment involving the injection of islets.
Islets are insulin-producing cells and are injected into a vein leading to the liver. The treatment is a one-off, as the cells remain and work in the liver long after they are first injected.
Research manager at Diabetes UK Dr Victoria King said that islets are used for patients at "great risk" of other diabetes-related complications, such as cardiovascular conditions and kidney disease.
"A pancreas transplant is major abdominal surgery, whereas the islet transplant isn't," Dr King explained.
The expert went on to say that researchers are working on other ways of providing islets, such as stem cells, although conceded that this is "very far off".
According to a recent Diabetes UK report, the number of people in Britain diagnosed with the condition has increased from 1.4 million in 1996 to 2.5 million today.
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