The procedure of transplanting bone marrow from one person to another is only ever performed in cases where the receiving patient faces a life threatening disease due to the high risk involved. Such cases include acquired conditions such as leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the lymph nodes, or congenital conditions including sickle cell disease and Thalassemia. Bone marrow transplant is therefore usually performed on patients that suffer from serious, degenerative blood conditions.

Procedure information
The first stage of this long process involves finding a suitable donor so that the transplanted bone marrow does not produce immune cells that attack the recipient, which means selecting a human whose leukocyte antigens match. Nearly one in three patients will have a sibling that will make a suitable donor.

The bone marrow is taken from a large bone, often the pelvis, through multiple insertions of a needle to retrieve a suitably large harvest. The procedure is performed under general anesthetic. The method of transplanting the bone marrow in the patient varies greatly depending on the condition it is designed to treat, but always involves introducing the marrow into the blood stream intravenously.

Usually, a transplant follows a course of chemotherapy designed to eradicate cancerous cells. Chemotherapy also results in a suppression of the immune system to help reduce the possibility that the bone marrow will not accept the host.

Recovery Time
Patients that undergo bone marrow transplants can take months to recover and at least 10 percent will not recover. The major source of complication occurs when the bone marrow attacks the body of the receiving host, meaning that the procedure always includes various treatments to suppress the immune system.

The critical period occurs within the first 3 months, when graft-versus-host disease is the biggest threat. The recovery period usually therefore takes around 6 months, during which time the patient is weak due to a suppressed immune system, meaning secondary infections may also cause complications that delay recuperation.