Bone Marrow is a spongy tissue found in the centre of some bones that can turn into different types of blood cells including:
To sum up there are two types of bone marrow: red and yellow. Red bone marrow contains blood stem cells that can become red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. Yellow bone marrow is made mostly of fat and contains stem cells that can become cartilage, fat, or bone cells.
Almost majority of the components of your blood are produced by bone marrow. It is in charge of producing billions of red blood cells, as well as white blood cells and platelets, on a regular basis. Bone marrow also stores fat, which is converted into energy when needed.
Bone Marrow Transplant (also called Stem Cell Transplant) is a procedure in which diseased or damaged bone marrow is replaced with a healthy one. Bone Marrow can be damaged due to some disease such as infection or treatment like chemotherapy. Bone Marrow Transplant is a medical procedure not a surgical one in which healthy blood-forming stem cells are injected into your body to replace the bone marrow that's not producing enough healthy blood cells.
Bone marrow transplants may use cells from your own body (autologous transplant) or from a donor (allogeneic transplant).
Bone Marrow Transplant is advised when Bone Marrow stops functioning and no longer able to produce healthy blood cells. It is also recommended as a treatment for a variety of both cancerous and noncancerous diseases, including:
Bone Marrow Transplant has three different types:
The type of transplant required for you is determined by the medical condition of the patient as well as the availability of a donor.
Donors, in this case, can be either related to the patient by blood or can be an unrelated match found through the national bone marrow directories.
However, the stem cells extracted from the umbilical cord are usually small in number which is why the recovery might take longer than the other procedures. The positive aspect of umbilical cord blood transplant is that, due to its pure nature, cord blood stems usually don’t have to undergo too many clinical matching tests.
Donors and patients are matched based on their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. HLA are proteins or markers located on the majority of your body's cells. These markers are used by your immune system to determine which cells belong in your body and which do not. The most essential matching element is a close HLA match between donor and patien.
There are several HLA markers that distinguish each person's tissue type. A successful bone marrow or cord blood transplant requires the presence of certain markers.
The doctor chooses a few possible donors whose HLA matches the patient on a fundamental way. The doctor then requests more testing to identify which donor is the most closely related to the patient.
If a patient finds many matches, doctors will also take other factors into account such as the donor's age, gender, blood type and BMI.
A blood test or a bone marrow biopsy is usually performed to assess whether the Bone Marrow Transplant surgery is required. Other procedures that may be performed include tissue typing, pulmonary lung testing, X-rays, and PET scans.
Bone Transplant is quite a wide-ranging procedure that takes almost a month. Here are the details of the procedure.
The Bone Marrow Transplant process starts with stem cell extraction. The finest stem cells are found largely in three major body Parts, including:
To increase the number of stem cells, you must take a clinical medicine. When the time comes, blood is extracted from one arm and filtered through a machine that separates the stem cells. The leftover blood is then pumped out of the machine and injected into the other arm.
The entire procedure is painless and takes roughly 2-3 hours. Even no hospitalisation is necessary, you may need to repeat this procedure.
The blood is extracted from multiple parts of your hipbone by medical team in this process.
In this procedure you will be given local or full anaesthesia during the process. The entire process takes about 1-2 hours. You might feel soreness for a few days after the procedure.
The blood extracted will be returned to your body later on through IV as you recover.
In this case, the stem cells are usually extracted from the placenta or the umbilical cord of a new-born baby.
The pre-approval from the mother is usually required for the process. However, this process does not affect the new-born baby in any manner.
When the stem cells are extracted and your transplant date is nearing, you must go through a conditioning Procedure, which often includes chemo or radiation therapy. This procedure is done to kill any traces of damaged or infected cells in your blood. Conditioning also actively lowers immunity levels in the body, making more room for new cells to enter.
Depending on how your body responds to conditioning and the sort of conditioning or bone marrow transplant surgery you'll undergo, the process may take place all at once or may extend to few days.
Doctors may recommend a reduced dose of chemo or radiation therapy during the conditioning process, which is known as reduced-intensity conditioning, based on the severity of your medical condition as well as other parameters such as age, the body's immune system, and so on.
A few days following the conditioning, the Bone Marrow Transplant takes place. The day of the transplant is also called as day zero takes place in a medical institute under the supervision of the haematology specialists.
The new stem cells are injected into your body via a small tube called a central line, which is connected to a vein in your chest. The Procedure may take up to a couple of hours, but it is completely painless, non-surgical and you will remain awake and aware throughout.
A few days after the transplant, you will see the effect.
There may be some side effects during and after the surgery. Generally, these side effects are not expected to be life threatening. They can include:
Frozen stem cells normally contain a preservative, which may result into various negative effects. The physicians will prescribe medications and advise you to drink plenty of water to flush the preservatives out of your system. However, the most common side-effects of the preservatives are mentioned below:
If the complications are long-term, they may result in the recurrence of the liver disease in the transplanted liver.
A few days after the conditioning or transplant, some other side-effects which most common can also show up, these side-effects include:
• Like other major surgery or procedure, patient undergone bone marrow transplant need love, care and support from near and dear ones.
• The doctor will give you a detailed diet chart, which will include some restrictions like no smoking and no alcohol.
• You are advised to avoid weight gain after your transplant procedure.
• You are advised to do moderate exercise regularly to maintain your weight.
• You are advised to take doctor follow-ups very seriously.
