Blood Cell Transplantation

Blood Cell Transplantation

Blood Cell Transplantation is a recently developed procedure which allows the health care professionals to have a great chance of successfully treating medical conditions that were previously thought to be incurable. This procedure is used in the case of patients suffering from severe affections of the blood or bone marrow, as well as in the case of patients with certain types of cancer. Example of such affections are sickle cell disease, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, congenital neutropenia, severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome or cancers such s myeloma, leukemia or lymphomas. Other affections that are not listed here may be treated through Blood Cell Transplantation as well. Many of these cause the production of diseased blood cells in excessive numbers while others lead to a severely reduced production of white blood cells. In time, the diseased, immature cells accumulate in the patient’s blood and begin invading other tissues causing further damage and perturbations in the normal functioning of the organism.

Conventional treatment for these affections is not possible or not desirable, mainly because the radiation or chemotherapy doses required would also destroy the normal cells in the patient’s body. As a result, these procedures could have been used only up to a certain point, in order to not put the patient’s life at risk. However, through the modern techniques and the possibilities offered by Blood Cell Transplantation operations, the chemotherapeutic and radiation therapy procedures can be used to eradicate the disease in the patient’s organism, replacing the damaged cells after the treatment has succeeded.

Unfortunately, the Blood Cell Transplantation procedure does not guarantee success in all situations. Also, the transplantation implies life-threatening risks, which only appear as acceptable when the patients have no other alternatives left. Even so, it is a dramatic improvement in the patient’s chances, and although in some cases the affection may recur, the patients have a longer period of time to enjoy their life as a healthy individual.

Blood Cell Transplantation Description

There are two types of Blood Cell Transplantation. Autologous transplantation involves the extraction and conservation of hematopoietic stem cells from the patient. After this procedure has been completed, the patient undergoes high-dose chemotherapeutic and / radiation therapy in order to completely eradicate the malignant cells from his or her organism. This causes the destruction of the patient’s bone marrow ability to create new blood cells. Once the malignant cells have been destroyed, the stem cells are returned into the patient’s organism, and they begin reconstructing the damaged tissue allowing the normal blood cell production to begin again. Patients undergoing autologous Blood Cell Transplantation procedures have a lower risk of infection during the period their immune system is being suppressed, as its normal functioning is resumed much faster. Also, complications such as the graft-versus-host disease are very rare. However, in some situations this type of transplantation is more likely to lead to a fast recurrence of the disease.

The second type of Blood Cell Transfusion is the allogeneic type. These procedures involve two distinct individuals: the patient, who will receive the transplant, and a donor. It is imperative that the donor tissue type is as close to a perfect match with the recipient’s as possible. However, even in the case of a perfect match, the recipient needs to be administered immunosuppressive medication in order to reduce the risk of graft versus host disease. There are three types of relationships between the donor and the recipient – they may be related, syngeneic or unrelated. A related relationship means they both are part of the same family, and have a closely matching tissue type. Syngeneic relationships usually exist between identical twins, and as such they are extremely rare; however, they have the distinct advantage of a perfect match of the tissue types. The donor and the recipient are unrelated when there is no family relationship between the two individuals and their tissue types are a close match.

Allogeneic Blood Cell Transplantations are typically performed by using stem cells from the umbilical cord blood. This type of transplants have much higher chance at immediate complications, however once these have been successfully prevented, a relapse of the disease is very unlikely.

Blood Cell Transplantation Related Medication

Undergoing a Blood Cell Transplantation exposes the recipient to high risks, and there is a high mortality rate – around 10% of the cases. As such, this option is considered acceptable only in the case of patients that already have very low chances of survival. The complications and possible side effects are numerous, and in many cases treating a complication has a high chance to cause another medical condition to occur.

Infections are very common – and very severe – complications which have ample time to set in, as the patient’s immune system is being suppressed for a long time and their white blood cell counts are very low. Prior to the Blood Cell Transplantation operation, the patient will undergo myeloablation, and the transplant may take weeks to be performed successfully. Prophylactic antibiotic therapies are performed but in spite of the medication, the patient is extremely susceptible to infections, to sepsis and to septic shock for the entire duration. Furthermore, the patient will need to follow therapy with immunosuppressive agents for prolonged periods of time and he or she will also lose their acquired immunity to diseases such as the childhood diseases and will need to be vaccinated once again after the immunosuppressive therapy ends.

Hepatic veno-occlusive disease is another complication which may occur. The characteristic symptoms associated with this affection are fluid retention, hepatomegaly and elevated bilirubin levels and this condition is in many cases lethal. The patient may undergo treatment with anticoagulants, defibrotide and Ursodiol – however these drugs may increase the risk of bleeding complications, as well s their severity. One of the most severe complications which may occur after a Blood Cell Transplantation procedure is the graft versus host disease. It is caused by the transplanted cells perceiving the recipient’s tissues as foreign material and react to it by attacking it. This condition can be treated by administration of Prednisone and other corticosteroid class medication; however this therapy causes an increase in the patient’s risk of infections.