Bone marrow donation procedure

Bone Marrow Facts

Our bone marrow is one of the mostimportant body parts. This is due to the fact that this tissue iscapable of producing the stem cells which later evolve into healthy bloodcells. Blood cells are crucial for our health and they are more thanneeded once we are fighting against some kind of a disease. However,sometimes, due to illnesses like leukemia, our organism is unable toproduce blood cells further. Then, we are in a dire need of a bonemarrow transplantation. This procedure enables our body to producecells which will fight the illness and give us a chance for beinghealthy again. But, for the transplantation to be possible, we needto have an adequate donor and some other things beforehand. Thus, ifyou are interested in the conduct of this life-saving procedure, readon.

More Than One Type of Transplantation

One may get a new bone marrow in twodifferent ways. One of the ways involves taking the needed marrowfrom some other organs the patient him or herself may have. Thesecond type of procedure means finding an adequate donor and takingthe bone marrow sample from him/her. These donors are usually peoplefrom the patient's family since genetics play a great role in bonemarrow compatibility. However, if the family bone marrow is notsuitable, many hospitals have a list of all possible donors whichmight be more adequate for the donation and are supposed to contactthem.

How Is the Procedure Performed?

The procedure itself has two differentways of manifestation as well. The first, safer and far less painful,way involves giving certain medications to the donor. Thesemedications stimulate his or her production of stem cells which exitthe bone marrow and start flowing through the blood. Then,intravenously, blood is drawn from the donor, different componentsare separated from it, stem cells are taken, and the rest is returnedback to the donor. Then, these stem cells are injected into thepatient, once his former, malfunctioning bone marrow is destroyed.

The second method is performed byinserting a large needle directly into the donor's pelvic or chestbone. Then, his/her bone marrow sample is taken and given to thepatient. Of course, the receiving patient is exposed to radiation andchemotherapy beforehand. These methods remove his/her old bone marrowand make place for the new one to be placed.

Finally, this bone marrow destructionmay cause numerous complications, since, until the new marrow startsproducing blood cells, the patient's health is jeopardized greatly.Apart from this danger, bone marrow transplantation has no otherunwanted side-effects.