Anaesthesia for combined pancreatic and renal transplantation and potassium homeostasis.

Diabetic patients who develop renal failure frequently have other serious manifestations of their disorder, including peripheral and central vascular disease, blindness, neuropathy and metabolic abnormalities which can include life-threatening loss of those mechanisms that normally control potassium homeostasis. In this report, the anaesthetic and metabolic management of five diabetic patients with end-stage renal failure undergoing combined pancreatic and renal transplantation, is presented and discussed.