Bone Marrow Transplant |
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DESCRIPTION
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A bone marrow transplant is crucial therapy for people with certain types of cancer, leukemia, or aplastic anemia (failure to produce new blood cells). The transplant replaces diseased marrow deliberately destroyed by a "conditioning program" of high dose radiation or chemotherapy. The healthy new marrow can be obtained from three sources: an unrelated donor (an allogeneic transplant), a twin sibling (a syngeneic transplant), or from the patient's own bones (an autologous transplant). If the patient is the donor, the marrow may be treated with radiation or chemicals before it's returned to the body. The transplant is delivered at your bedside in the hospital through an intravenous (IV) line. If you are receiving your own marrow, the procedure takes about 20 to 30 minutes. A transplant from another donor takes 1 to 5 hours. Once in the bloodstream, the marrow cells will eventually find their way into the bones, where they will begin to multiply.
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CARE
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Immediately If... You develop sudden chest pain or trouble breathing. You could have a blood clot in your lung or may be having a reaction to one of your medications. You cannot think clearly. You develop a headache or stiff neck. You develop a high fever. You become so depressed you feel you can no longer cope.
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COMPLICATIONS
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s Marrow transplants pose serious risks. Bone marrow is the source of many of the white blood cells that protect the body from infection. With the old marrow gone and the new marrow still taking hold, your body will be temporarily vulnerable to severe infections. Worse yet, a rejection of the marrow could prove fatal. However, without treatment the disease, too, will probably end in death.
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