Pancreas transplant centers by 1-year survival

How to Read This Ranking

Survival rankings for pancreas transplantation reflect a single, well-defined outcome: the probability that the transplanted organ remains functional one year after surgery, adjusted for differences in patient mix. Two centers reporting the same raw survival number can sit very far apart in a risk-adjusted ranking when one accepts a much sicker waiting list than the other. SRTR's hierarchical Bayesian models lean toward the national average for low-volume centers, so a small program with five transplants in the cohort window will move less in either direction than a large program with five hundred, the ranking is most stable for centers in the middle of the volume distribution.

Risk adjustment matters because not every pancreas candidate carries the same baseline risk. Recipients with advanced disease, multiple prior failed transplants, donor-recipient size mismatches, or immunological sensitization will have lower expected survival before the procedure begins. SRTR's models subtract this expected survival from observed survival to produce a center-specific performance estimate. A center that consistently accepts the most complex referrals, for instance, regional referral hospitals taking patients other programs decline, can outperform on risk-adjusted survival while reporting lower raw numbers. The ranking column you see here is the adjusted figure, not the raw one.

Patients and referring clinicians use these rankings as one signal among several. Distance from home, insurance coverage, surgeon volume in your specific subtype, willingness to accept marginal donors, and program-specific eligibility criteria all weigh into a real-world transplant decision. The rankings here describe the typical outcome envelope a program has produced in the SRTR cohort window, they do not, and cannot, predict your individual outcome. Always discuss center selection with your transplant nephrologist, hepatologist, cardiologist, or pulmonologist, who can correlate published survival data with your specific clinical profile.