Bone marrow transplant saves the lives of patients with leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and lymphoma. Bone marrow collection is painless and safe for your he alth, so it is worth becoming a bone marrow donor. Find out what conditions you have to meet to become a bone marrow donor?
Bone marrow donorcan be a person between 18 and 50 years of age, generally he althy, who did not suffer from jaundice, viral hepatitis, heart diseases, oncology, hematology and not is HIV positive.
Willing people fill out a form, which is treated as a declaration of will. The personal data of a potential donor are entered into the database and supplemented with genetic information. To obtain them, blood is drawn (as in normal morphology) and HLA antigens or histocompatibility antigens are determined. HLAs are proteins on the cell surface that determine whether the donor'smarrowis well received by the patient's body. If so, he will start fightingleukemia . If not, he will treat the body into which he has been implanted as an enemy and begin to destroy it. The medical interpretation of this is graft versus host. Careful HLA testing and antigen determination is imperative to avoid this risk. They are performed in HLA groups I and II. Only absolute tissue compatibility of the donor and recipient can save the other's life. Finding the perfect donor is difficult but possible. Among siblings, antigen compatibility is only 25%. Therefore, donors are sought among unrelated people. The success of the search depends on the frequency of the patient's antigens in the population. Hence, for a Pole, at least theoretically, it will be easiest to find a donor in Poland, more difficult in Germany or the Czech Republic, and even more difficult in Spain. Therefore, the larger the database, the greater the chances of selecting an appropriate donor for the patient. After double-checking the antigen compatibility between the donor and recipient, the transplant machine starts. The procedure is preceded by a meeting during which the donor is informed about the technique of the procedure. Until then, he may not donate bone marrow. This is no longer possible when the patient's preparation for transplant begins. During this time, he is given powerful drugs that sterilize the body. If he does not get the marrow, his life is in serious danger.
Where to go for help
If you want to donate, contact the Anti-Leukemia Foundation
ul. Morcinka 5 pav. 19
01-496 Warszawa
tel. 0 22 638 35 38 ext. 205
[email protected]
A dozen or so days before the procedure, the donor donates blood (about 400 ml), which is returned to him after the bone marrow is collected.
The marrow is collected in the hospital, in the operating room, under general anesthesia. Doctors repeatedly puncture the bones of the iliac plate with a special needle and suck out the marrow - usually 1000-1500 ml. The total volume of tissue donated depends on the weight of the recipient and the number of hematopoietic cells in the donor bone marrow. The number of hematopoietic cells is tested during the marrow collection. After the procedure, which takes 45 to 90 minutes, only puncture marks remain on the donor's body. The removed tissue (bone marrow) is stored in containers with liquid to prevent it from clotting. Now the marrow is ready for transplant.
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