Bone marrow transplant: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Posted: November 10, 2013 at 3:42 pm

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells.

Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your blood cells.

There are three kinds of bone marrow transplants:

Before the transplant, chemotherapy, radiation, or both may be given. This may be done in two ways:

A stem cell transplant is done after chemotherapy and radiation is complete. The stem cells are delivered into your bloodstream usually through a tube called a central venous catheter. The process is similar to getting a blood transfusion. The stem cells travel through the blood into the bone marrow. Most times, no surgery is needed.

Donor stem cells can be collected in two ways:

A bone marrow transplant replaces bone marrow that either is not working properly or has been destroyed (ablated) by chemotherapy or radiation.

Your doctor may recommend a bone marrow transplant if you have:

A bone marrow transplant may cause the following symptoms:

Possible complications of a bone marrow transplant depend on many things, including:

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Bone marrow transplant: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

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