What are the advantages and disadvantages of bone marrow transplantation for leukemia?

Bone marrow transplantation for leukemia is effective treatment, either the treatment of the disease or prolongs the time when the patient lives a disease without disease. Although the effectiveness of the procedure cannot be denied, it is an invasive medical procedure with a long list of complications and side effects. Before deciding on the bone marrow transplantation, it is important to discuss all the possibilities with the doctor.

There are two different periods when complications can develop during bone marrow transplantation for leukemia. During the actual infusion process, it is common for the patient to experience hives, fever, chills and pain. During the recovery period, the patient may also develop ulcers in the mouth, be extremely weak, develop nausea and diarrhea, and go through a period of confusion and emotional distress. The period of recovery of bone marrow transplantation includes weeks of stay in the hospital, extreme vulnerability to infection, blood transfusions, and stay in a sterile environment.

Complications that may arise include infections, low platelets and low red blood cells, fluid overload, respiratory problems, mouth pain, gastrointestinal pain, organ damage, graft failure and graft versus host disease. The side effects of these complications may be anything from discomfort to death. The failure of graft develops when the immune system destroys a new bone marrow, leading to the rejection of graft. The graft disease versus the host develops when the genetic material of the transplanted bone marrow is not close enough to the patient's genetic material, causing the body to treat a new bone pulp as a foreign body.

leukemia is usually treated with chemotherapy. Bone marrow transplantation is typical if the patient was in remission, but relaps or has leukemia, which is refractory or resistant to treatment. Relapsed or refractory leukemia can be treated with radiation.

There are three different types of transplants toLine marrows: autologous, allogenic and sygnetic. Autologous procedures are rarely used for patients with leukemia. In the autologous bone marrow transplantation, the patient devotes his own bone marrow. Sygenic transplantation is bone marrow, which is taken from the same twin.

The final and most common type of bone marrow transplant for leukemia is allogeneic transplantation. This bone marrow comes from a donor, often a sibling or other member of a family other than the same twin, although it can also come from a foreigner. Blood tests are used to determine whether the genetic material is close enough to make the person a good choice as a donor.