Bone marrow transplant is a surgical procedure performed to replace bone marrow that has been damaged or completely destroyed by a disease, infection, chemotherapy or any other radiation treatment. This procedure involves transplanting of blood stem cells, which travel to the bone marrow where they produce new blood cells and promote growth of new marrow. Bone marrow transplant is a complex medical procedure performed by the most experienced surgeons at Fortis International, BG Road, Bangalore.
Bone marrow is the spongy, fatty tissue inside the bones. It helps create the following parts of the blood:
The primary reason behind bone marrow transplant is to replace the damaged stem cells with healthy ones. This helps the body make enough quantity white blood cells, platelets, or red blood cells to avoid infections, bleeding disorders, or anemia and sustain the human body on the whole. Healthy stem cells can be sourced in two ways. Either from a donor, or from the patient’s body itself. In the second case, healthy stem cells can be harvested, or grown, before the patient starts undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Healthy stem cells harvested before the radiation treatment/chemotherapy are then stored and used during the bone marrow transplant surgery.
Bone marrow transplants become a critical medical requirement for a patient when his/her marrow isn’t healthy enough to function properly. This could be due to various reasons such as chronic infections, disease, or cancer treatments. Some reasons which may necessitate bone marrow transplant include:
