Bone Marrow Vital for Health - Assam Hospital

Today, a lot of people with blood cancers like leukaemia, sickle cell anaemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening conditions rely on bone marrow or cord blood transplants to survive. It has been estimated that bone marrow makes more than 220 billion new blood cells daily, which is essential to survive. The absence of bone marrow can be fatal as it’s one of the critical body parts. When bone marrow doesn’t produce enough blood cells, doctors call it bone marrow failure, which might produce damaged or no cells. If bone marrow fails to work effectively, it becomes hard for a human being to survive.

In this write-up, we have shared some crucial information regarding bone marrow for you.

What is bone marrow?

Bone marrow is a soft and spongy tissue located in the medullary cavities (centre) of certain large bones. Healthy bone marrow is a requisite part of your body as it consists of stem cells (immature cells) that produce blood cells and the cells that build the immune system. Each type of blood cell made by bone marrow has a crucial job to perform that are:

  • Red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues in the body. 
  • White blood cells help in fighting infections. 
  • Platelets cease bleeding by helping blood clot.

Why is bone marrow examination essential?

There are various diseases that can affect bone marrow directly or indirectly. Therefore, it’s essential to do a bone marrow examination to check about the possible causes that are harming the health of bone marrow. Bone marrow examination is a process that provides crucial clues to the doctor to perform the right diagnosis or treatment. For example, when blood cells, platelet, and haemoglobin counts are decreased, an urgent bone marrow examination is required to identify the cause of this specific condition.

What causes bone marrow failure?

One of the most common causes of bone marrow failure in children and adults is aplastic anaemia (a condition when your body stops producing enough new blood cells). So when the bone marrow’s hematopoietic cells get damaged, the body cannot produce enough red, white, or platelets blood cells. The insufficient quantity of blood cell production causes anaemia, which has low energy as it’s the primary symptom. Some of the common bone marrow failure syndromes include:

  • Diamond blackfan anaemia 
  • Fanconi anaemia 
  • Shwachman Diamond syndrome
  • SAMD9/SAMD9L-related disorders
  • Dyskeratosis congenita
  • Shwachman Diamond syndrome

How is bone marrow failure treated?

Bone marrow failure is a severe condition; therefore, proper treatment is required to provide supportive care. There are treatments like blood transfusions and stem cell transplants, and let’s talk about these two treatments below.

  1. Blood transfusions – It is a temporarily relieving treatment in which a patient is provided with blood through a narrow tube placed within a vein in the arm. This procedure helps replace blood loss due to surgery or injury. 
  2. Stem cell transplant – Also known as bone marrow transplant, the damaged bone marrow is replaced with healthy cells. Before the transplant, the patient receives high doses of chemotherapy to prepare their body for the transplant.

If you’re looking for a renowned hospital for bone marrow transplant treatment, Assam Hospital should be your ideal choice. We have a team of trained and expert doctors for proper treatment. Consult our doctors immediately to get the treatment done.