Description of Bone Marrow Transplant
A Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) is a medical procedure used to replace damaged or diseased bone marrow with healthy stem cells. It is commonly used to treat conditions such as leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, and certain immune or genetic disorders.
There are two main types of BMT:
Autologous Transplant: Uses the patient’s own stem cells.
Allogeneic Transplant: Uses stem cells from a donor, which may be a relative or an unrelated match.
The procedure involves high-dose chemotherapy or radiation to destroy the diseased marrow, followed by the infusion of healthy stem cells to regenerate new blood cells. While BMT can be life-saving, it requires careful monitoring due to potential complications like infections, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and immune suppression.