Bone Marrow Transplant Surgery

What is vagus nerve stimulation?

Bone Marrow Transplant Surgery is a process in which a Bone Marrow is replaced with a strong and healthy one. Usually, the donor in this process is a family member of the patient. In most of the cases patient’s brother or sister are considered to be the most suitable donors to make this surgery successful.

What is the procedure?

Bone Marrow Transplant Surgery is a four stage treatment process explained below:

1. Physical checkup- In this stage the patient goes through a complete physical checkup assessing his physical health. During this process the patient undergoes through scans and regular tests checking the status of the internal organs of patient’s body including liver, heart and lungs.
2. Collecting stem cells- The second stage is to collect healthy stem cells to take the treatment forward. If the donor is an adult then the stem cells are gathered by removing blood from the body and then separating stem cells from other cells and later giving back the blood to the body. In case of a child the stem cells are removed from the hip bone through a syringe.
3. Preparing the body- In this stage the patient is given heavy dose medicines to support the immune system. In some cases central line is considered to be a good option than the painful injections where a tube is inserted into a large vein near the patient’s heart. Radiation and chemotherapies are also considered in some cases wherein there is a need to damage the existing bone marrow cells to make space for the new cells or to make your immune system disable, reducing the risk of rejection.
4. Transplanting the cells- Once the patient’s body is completely prepared for transplant the process can take place after two or three days. In this procedure the stem cells donated by the donor are transplanted into the patient’s body through the central line. Depending on the nature of blood cells used this transplantation can take from half an hour to multiple hours to succeed.

What are the complications involved in this procedure?

Post transplantation getting back to routine is actually what the patient will be searching for. Once the treatment is done the first stage of recovery may vary from 15 to 30 days. It is recommended to take high-protein fluids to provide nutritional support to the body.

Complications involved in this procedure are:

1. Feeling weak, loss of appetite, diarrhea and sometimes the patient may experience vomiting.
2. The patient’s body is more prone to develop infections due to loss of white blood cells.
3. Chills and Drop in blood pressure
4. The patient may suffer from fever and flushing due to loss of immunity.
5. Headache, Hives, Nausea and Pain are some of the common side-effects of this treatment.