M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is home to one of largest programs in the world to treat children with chronic pancreatitis. M Health Fairview surgeons were the first to perform the pancreatectomy and islet auto-transplant procedure (TP-IAT) on an adult in 1977.

Our multidisciplinary team has achieved great outcomes with a comprehensive and experienced program that will reduce your child’s pain and improve his or her quality of life. During a TP-IAT, surgeons remove your child’s pancreas, specialists separate out the islet cells, and the surgeons inject the islets into your child’s liver to manage blood sugar levels. This process helps to prevent the onset of diabetes from the removal of the pancreas.

Our surgeons have performed more than 600 procedures, which is more than three times the number at any other medical center. Roughly 100 of these procedures were performed on children.