Bone marrow transplant

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Bone marrow aspiration

Bone marrow from hip

Bone-marrow transplant - series

Formed elements of blood

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure that transplant healthy bone marrow into a patient whose bone marrow is not working properly. A bone marrow transplant may be done for several conditions including hereditary blood diseases, hereditary metabolic diseases, hereditary immune deficiencies, and various forms of cancer.

The healthy bone marrow may be taken from the patient prior to chemotherapy or radiation treatment (autograft), or it may be taken from a donor (allograft).

Transplant - bone marrow

Bone marrow is a soft, fatty tissue inside the bones. This is where blood cells (red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells) are produced, and where they develop. In a disease of the blood cells -- especially cancers such as leukemia -- high doses of chemotherapy may be required to destroy the cancer. However, this also destroys normal blood cells.

In other cases in which hereditary or acquired disorders cause abnormal blood cell production, transplantation of healthy bone marrow may correct these problems. Transplanted bone marrow will restore production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Bone marrow transplant patients are usually treated in specialized centers. The patient stays in a special nursing unit -- a bone marrow transplant unit, or BMT -- to limit exposure to infections.

Donated bone marrow must match the patient's tissue type. It can be taken from the patient, a living relative (usually a brother or a sister), or from an unrelated donor (found through the national marrow donor program). Donors are matched through special blood tests called HLA tissue typing. (See HLA antigens.)

Bone marrow is taken from the donor in the operating room while the donor is unconscious and pain-free (under general anesthesia). Some of the donor's bone marrow is removed from the top of the hip bone. The bone marrow is filtered, treated, and transplanted immediately or frozen and stored for later use. Transplant marrow is transfused into the patient through a vein (IV) and is naturally carried into the bone cavities where it grows to replace the old bone marrow.