A bone marrow transplant is a typical medical procedure only performed by some specialists to replace bone marrow that has been damaged or destroyed by disease or any infection. This procedure involves transplanting blood stem cells which are immature and give rise to other blood cells. Bone marrow is the soft fatty tissue present inside the bone. Bone marrow is responsible for creating RBCs which carry oxygen and nutrients, WBCs which fight the infections and for creating platelets which form blood clots.
Healthy stem cells can come from a healthy person or can come from own body. Bone marrows are performed mostly in case of cancer treatment. Some really brilliant specialists are performing bone marrow transplant surgery in India for a long time. There are a number of reasons for performing it. Some other reasons are:
- Anemia: in this disorder, bone marrow stops making new blood cells.
- Due to cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.
- Chemotherapy
- Congenital Neutropenia
- Thalassemia
Know the type of Bone marrow
There are three kinds of bone marrow transplants. The type depends on the reason for the requirement of surgery.
Autologous Bone Marrow: As the word auto means self, the treatment is done by using a person’s own stem cells. In this, harvesting of cells before beginning a damaging therapy like chemotherapy is done. After the treatment, cells are returned. Stem cells are stored in a freezer. This is only possible in healthy bone marrow condition. It is much simpler. This is also called a rescue transplant.
Allogeneic Transplants: Here, the term allo means other. In this case, stem cells are removed from the body of another person. The condition is that donor’s genes should partially match the patient’s genes. Special tests are conducted to determine these genes match. Brother or sister is most likely the great match. The unknown donor can be found by searching bone marrow registers. The process is complicated and medicine will be required to balance the immune system. Illness can be faced for some time.
Umbilical Cord Blood transplant: This is the other type of allogeneic transplant in which stem cells are removed from a newborn baby’s cord right after birth. Cells are transferred to the bloodstream through a tube called central venous catheter.
Bone Marrow Transplant Risks: Like other medical procedures, stem cell transplant carries a lot of risks. There are risks of various infections, rapid change in BP and nausea. One of the greatest risks in this surgery is GVHD. In which newly transplanted hematopoietic stem cells attack the body of the patient. Internal bleeding and anemia are also some risks involved in this. Thus, bone marrow is only done in the case, where there is no alternative available.
Bone Marrow Transplant success rate: though the success rate of bone marrow transplantation is little low and the risk increases with age. The surgery cost is little expensive compared to all other treatments but one can be treated by bone marrow transplant surgery in India at some reasonable price.