If you are on the bone marrow register and you are identified as a potential donor, you may be asked to provide a blood sample. This will enable further checks on your tissue type to be made.
If your tissue type matches the patient who requires bone marrow, you may be selected to donate. You will have a full medical examination and receive some counselling about the procedure.
There are two ways of donating bone marrow. The first and most widely used method is known as a peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation. The second method involves donation of the bone marrow itself.
Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation
Peripheral blood stem cell donation (PBSC) is a procedure that allows you to donate stem cells without having to directly donate any bone marrow.
Every day for four days before the PBSC donation takes place, you will receive an injection of a medication called filgrastim. This will increase the number of stem cells in your blood. Stem cells produce a variety of blood cells, including red blood cells that carry oxygen around your body.
Common side effects of filgrastim include:
- bone pain
- nausea
- headache
- fatigue
Less common side effects include:
- chest pain
- difficulty sleeping
- dizziness
- night sweats
These side effects are usually mild and should pass once treatment with filgrastim has stopped.
On the fifth day, you will be connected to a special machine that can separate the stem cells from your blood. The stem cells are collected for donation.
The advantage of having a PBSC is that you do not have to have a general anaesthetic, and you will not have to stay in hospital overnight.
Bone marrow donation
In bone marrow donation, a syringe is used to remove bone marrow from your hip bone. Although this is not a surgical operation, it is usually carried out under a general anaesthetic to stop you feeling any pain during the procedure.
After donating bone marrow, you may experience some discomfort at the site where the needle was inserted into your hip, but this should pass within a few days. You will usually need to stay in hospital for 48 hours to make sure you have recovered fully from the general anaesthetic.
After the donation procedure, it usually takes about five days to fully recover from the effects of the anaesthetic and to regenerate the donated bone marrow. It is recommended that you stay at home during this period and get plenty of rest.
Risks
PBSC and traditional bone marrow donation are both very safe procedures that have a small level of associated risk.
Around 1 in every 100 people will experience a complication, such as an infection as a result of the injections that are used during PBSC and bone marrow donation. In very rare cases, a person may experience a serious allergic reaction to the general anaesthetic that is used during a bone marrow donation. An allergic reaction is estimated to occur in 1 in every 10,000 cases.
