 BALTIMORE (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Chronic pancreatitis is a condition that affects about 80,000 people in the United States. It's a painful illness that gets worse when people eat and digest food. That often leaves them unable to eat without severe pain. Now a new treatment is having a dramatic impact on patients' lives.
Standing in line for cafeteria food is a relief for Doris Holzman. "It just got worse and worse," she says. "Then two and a half years ago, three years ago, they had to put a feeding tube in my stomach." It is pancreatitis. "I couldn't go out to dinner with my husband. I could not sit down and have dinner with my family on holidays." When the pancreas is inflamed, patients are unable to digest food without severe pain. Surgeon David Leeser, M.D., says chronic cases are the most frustrating, since physicians don't have much to offer patients.
 Now, Dr. Leeser and doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore are removing the pancreas of some patients -- an organ that's not easy to live without.
Dr. Leeser says, "It could be removed, but when you did remove the entire pancreas you knew you were going to get bad diabetes."
To stop diabetes from developing, surgeons transplant a patient's own islet cells into the liver. There, they can thrive and produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels.
"About 90 percent or more of the patients, we can relieve their pain or significantly decrease their pain," Dr. Leeser says. And there's a 50- to 75-percent chance they'll never need insulin.
 Holzman had her pancreas removed. Her pain is gone and she does not need insulin. "I prayed and prayed for an answer for a long time. It is the answer to my prayers and I really think they saved my life," she says. Now, she's thankful for even the simplest moments.
Dr. Leeser says, in patients with pancreatitis, the islet cell transplants are done using the patient's own islet cells so there's no risk of rejection. Islet cell transplants have made headlines in the last few years for the potential they have in treating type one diabetes.
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If you would like more information, please contact:
Karen Warmkessel
University of Maryland
(410) 328-8919
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