Question 1

How long after bone marrow transplant does a patient stay in the hospital?

Accepted Answer

It depends on things such as the type of transplant (autologous with the patient's own cells or allogeneic with a donor's cells), chemotherapy regimen used for the transplant, the patient's health status, and also the transplant center.  At some centers a transplant can be done as an outpatient.  For inpatient transplants the stay is generally 3-6 weeks.  Discuss with your bmt physician.

Question 2

When after a bone marrow transplant does a patient has to stay in the hospital?

Accepted Answer

It depends upon engraftment (when the blood count rises enough to be safe) and on complications. Usually no less than about 3 weeks.

Question 3

How long will i  be in the hospital after a blood and bone marrow transplant?

Accepted Answer

With many of the peripheral blood stem cell transplants, some programs do the whole procedure as an outpatient, keeping the patient close to the center because they will need daily followup for awhile. Other programs have the patients in hospital for about 2 weeks. Patients with other serious problems may end up staying for longer times...4-6 weeks, but this is not as common as it used to be.

Question 4

If i am coming from another city for a bone marrow transplant, how long do i need to stay near the hospital?

Accepted Answer

You really need to speak directly with the team doing your bone marrow transplant for their advice and recommendations.

Question 5

How do you treat a bk virus in a bone marrow transplant patient?

Accepted Answer

We don't have much options when it comes to bk virus - it doesn't cause much robles except when it comes to transplants. The simplest solution most teams will consider attempting, is to adjust the medications used for immunosuppression - however, this will be weighed against the risk of the organ being rejected.  Hope this explanation helps!

Question 6

Do bone marrow transplant patients have to take immunosuppressive drugs forever?

Accepted Answer

Following autologous bone marrow/stem cell transplantation, no immunosuppressive drugs are prescribed because there is no risk of graft-versus-host disease (gvhd). However, after an allogeneic (donor) bone marrow-stem cell transplantation, immunosuppressive medications are given generally for up to 1 year. An attempt is made to taper these off by the end of 1 year especially if no gvhd is seen.

Question 7

Is it possible for a bone marrow transplant save a terminally ill lymphoma patient?

Accepted Answer

Bone marrow transplantation is often used as therapy for patients who are unresponsive to standard therapy.

Question 8

Could it happen such that a bone marrow transplant save a terminally ill lymphoma patient?

Accepted Answer

Bone marrow transplants have been used to treat refractory lymphoma with some degree of success.

Question 9

What do patients experience getting a bone marrow transplant?

Accepted Answer

Typically bone marrow transplants completely destroy (ablate) your marrow, usually using a combination of intense chemo and radiation. The new marrow is infused by iv, and you must wait in hospital for these cells to repopulate your marrow (engraftment). Possible complications include infection and graft versus host disease (gvhd). You will spend alot of time in hospital and have close follow-up.

Question 10

What does a patient go through before having a bone marrow transplant. and after the transplant?

Accepted Answer

There are different protoclos but generally it starts with drugs to supress or destroy recipient bone marrow, and drugs to block the immune system so the graft can "take".  Blood counts are low, and infections occur, transfusions needed.  Once engrafted, worry is graft vs host disease and powerful immunosupressive drugs are given to prevent or treat gvhd. Sites are lung, liver, skin, GI tract.

How long after bone marrow transplant does a patient stay in the hospital