Verified By September 15, 2020
The blood and bone marrow transplantation centre at Apollo Hospitals Group, India has performed over 2500 transplants with an excellent success rate.
Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai is a trusted name in BMT for international patients, as the hospital has not just a highly qualified BMT team, but also very stringent infection control norms which are critical for BMT patients.
The procedure serves mainly 3 purposes
Blood cells grow in the same way as other human cells. They develop in the bone marrow from a parent cell known as “stem cell”. These stem cells begin to divide and mature until they are fully developed, forming all the different types of blood cells: white cells, platelets and red blood cells. Stem cells are usually found inside the bone marrow spaces of large bones, however, they can also travel from bone to bone to other by way of blood system. A very small percentage of the white blood cells circulating through our veins are stem cells.
There is no surgery involved in Transplant, for the patient or donor. It is a very safe procedure for a donor. Nothing is lost permanently in the body e.g. as in kidney Transplant. Stem cells regenerate in few days. For the same reason there are over 1 crore (10 million) volunteer donors for stem cell transplant in USA. Stem Cells are infused into the patient through a live Blood Transfusion.
The Stem Cells can be collected from patient’s own body or can be harvested from another person. This other person is known as donor.
Stem cells are taken from the patient blood by (peripheral blood) through apheresis using special machines (peripheral) and then given back to the patient after conditioning treatment.
The donor is either a relative or someone related but has a similar HLA. Stem cells are taken either by bone marrow harvest or apheresis (peripheral blood stem cells) from a HLA matched donor, usually a brother or sister. Other donors for allogeneic bone marrow transplants include the following:
Stem cell transplant is an exciting area of medicine. It is a well-established treatment for several cancers and diseases of blood for the past few decades.
There are three main steps in the transplantation process.
Having a transplant can be very demanding, physically and emotionally. It may help if patients can talk about their fears and concerns.
It is important to understand why one is having the transplant and what the actual processes will be, so that the patient can make practical arrangements and also prepare himself or herself mentally. It is a good idea to discuss the entire process with the doctors and nurses involved, before the patient goes into hospital.
Matching the HLA of donor & patient is done by blood tests alone.It is usual to start by testing the brothers and sisters, as they are likely to provide the best match. The donor should be in good health. He or she will be given a thorough medical check-up to make sure that there will be no risk to his or her own health from the procedure.
The bone marrow harvest itself is carried out under general anaesthesia, so one will feel nothing. It involves the removal of some marrow from inside the pelvic bones. The patient or donor will have to stay in hospital overnight to recover fully from the general anaesthesia. Usually it feels sore for a few days and mild painkillers may be required. These will be administered by the nurses or doctors.
Stem cell harvesting is done following a course of daily injections of a growth factors. This procedure takes about 3 hours. The patient will be made to lie down on a couch and a transfusion will be put into the vein of each arm. Blood will be collected from one arm, into a machine called a centrifuge, which spins it to separate out the stem cells. These are collected, missing gene, and replacing that gene is curative and the remaining blood is returned through the IV in the other arm. The stem cells can even be frozen.
January 20, 2025