Bone Marrow Transplant: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Bone Marrow Transplant has proven to be a scientific breakthrough in saving the lives of many individuals all around the world. Various forms of bone marrow transplant have been developed to help more people everyday. Initially, bone marrow transplant came into the news with its life-saving treatments against a variety of cancers. But over the years, bone marrow transplant has been used to save patients from life-threatening infections and likewise medical problems. For instance, the field of allogeneic stem cell transplantation has seen massive technological advancements over the year. Inaddition to that, their long-lasting positive outcomes on the patient’s health have alsoimproved. Acknowledging the questions that must be in your minds bone marrow transplant, in this article, we have answered some of the common ones.

1. What is a bone marrow transplant?

There are many medical problems especially, cancers and infections in which an effective course of treatment is to replace the damaged bone marrow of the patient with healthy blood stem cells from a matching donor. Unlike as the name of the procedure suggests, in a bone marrow transplantation, the blood stem cells from the donor are substituted in the place of the affected bone marrow either from a disease or some sort of medical treatment namely, chemotherapy.

2. What are the potential problems which can lead to a bone marrow transplant?

Basically, any disorder or disease which affects the bone marrow enough to cause it damage can qualify for treatment through bone marrow transplantation. Doctors recommend it for leukaemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. In some cases, the chemotherapy performed for treating the patient from cancer can also prove to be a reason for damaging bone marrow, in these cases also bone marrow transplantation is performed to save the life of the patient. Diseases which particularly impact the bone marrownamely, aplastic anaemia and sickle cell anaemia can be a reason for this treatment as well. Chronic infections can also worsen the healthycondition of the bonemarrow, in the congenital neutropenia, the patient suffers from recurring infections, such infections are also treated by a bone marrow transplantation.

3. What risks are associated with bone marrow transplantation?

Change in normal blood pressure, headaches, state of nausea, pain, shortness in breath, fever or chills are some of the short-term side-effects of a bone marrow transplantation. On the other hand, severe risks can include graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), problems and/or failure of the graft, excessive and unexplained bleeding, the formation of cataracts, damage to body parts such as liver and kidneys, anaemia, mucositis, and diarrhoea. Women who undergobone marrowtransplantation can experience early menopause.

4. What is autologous blood cell transplant?

In an autologous blood cell transplant, the cells are taken from the body of the patient itself. There should be insurance that blood cellsthat are taken for the blood cell transplantation, they should be healthy. It is not commonly performed because the necessity of a bone marrow transplant often arrives after the  patient has suffered from considerable damage to their bonemarrow but in case of a patient who is about to be engaged in a session ofchemotherapy, autologousbone cell transplant can be performedbecauseprior to the chemotherapy, the bone marrow of the patient is healthy.

5. What is an allogeneic blood cell transplant?

Unlikeautologous blood cell transplant, in an allogeneic blood transplant, the blood cellstook for transplantthey are taken from a donor’s body. In most of the cases, an allogeneic blood transplant is performed. It is important to confirm that blood cells from the donor are closely matching those of the recipient.  The donor can either be a blood relative or some other unrelated donor, the only thing important is that the levels of match between the donor’s and recipient's blood stem cells should be high.

6. Why is the immune system of the recipient for bone marrow transplant suppressed?

When the blood cells for bone marrow transplant are taken from a donor, the immune system of the recipientcan show resistance against the blood cells from the donor. To make sure that no reaction is experienced which can cause complication, doctors compromise the immune system of the recipient to some extent.

Conclusion

To make sure that all your queries are met with professional advice, we consulted Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, who is an experienced expert in this field. He even helped us to understand the various types of bone marrow transplantation including allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplant in Delhi. Bone marrow transplantation has evolved over the years with new opportunities opening with every new research that is being carried out in this field all around the world. The main focus has been kept on understanding how a bone marrow transplantation works and what all are the reasons and risks which it is associated with. The standard procedures have been elaborated with as performed by the bone marrow transplant specialist in the best institutions of bone marrow transplant in Delhi and other important medical hubs of the country.

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Created on May 24th 2019 06:22. Viewed 439 times.

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