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Turkey provides the largest and comprehensive healthcare services in the world. Due to the high rate of successful surgeries of complex medical diseases Turkey is becoming the most preferred location for better and technologically advanced medical care.
Among the most complicated procedures, bone marrow transplant is considered the most complicated procedure. In Turkey, itself total of 3366 bone marrow transplants had been done to date, out of which 726 are on adults and 2630 on children. And the number of transplants is increasing every year at a high rate.
Turkey is becoming the choice of destination all around the world for complex surgeries, transplants, and treatment therapies. The reason being Turkey has great infrastructure, cost-effective and pocket-friendly treatment strategies, modern equipment, affordable accommodation, and hospital stay.
The JCI – gold standard of accreditation along with other international accreditations has also confirmed the compliance of Turkish hospitals in modern medical practice.
Reasons why Turkey is one of the popular hubs of medical tourism for Bone Marrow transplantation
Any complex treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach and Turkey fits this criterion completely. Bone marrow transplant surgeries are very effective and are up to 96 percent and the treatment cost is around 50 percent lesser than the cost of bone marrow transplant in other European countries.
Besides this, the additional benefits like the cost of hospital stay, food, and other basic requirements are much lower than the other European countries. Bone marrow transplants are carried out among both adults and pediatric patients.
Turkey’s position in the world in Bone Marrow transplant surgeries
The quality of treatment and care with great infrastructure, successful surgeries by qualified doctors with vast experience, knowledge, and expertise in their field along with pocket-friendly treatment procedures has made Turkey the leading country for Bone Marrow Transplant surgeries.
Bone marrow transplant is a procedure carried to replace diseased bone marrow stem cells with healthy stem cells. This treatment is done to treat diseases like blood cancers, bone marrow diseases. Other than this procedure is also done in patients with noncancerous conditions.
The healthy cells that replace the diseased cells could be from their own body or taken from the donor. Bone marrow transplant is often called as Stem cell transplant.
When the bone marrow stops producing healthy cells for normal functioning of the body, bone marrow transplant is recommended.
Is the bone marrow transplant a major surgery?
A bone marrow transplant is similarly done to a blood transfusion procedure. Before the transplant, the unhealthy cells are first destroyed by chemotherapy followed by a healthy cells transplant.
The procedure is done intravenously. The iv catheter is placed and the transfusion of healthy cells is done. Once transfused the healthy cells find their way to reach marrow.
Types of Bone Marrow Transplant
The donor could be your own body or healthy cells are taken from another donor. Thus there are three types of transplants.
In case of no donor for Bone marrow transplant, the patient can be offered for a non-relative transfer from the bank scan. and if there is no compatible donor from the bank, haploidentical transplant may be recommended.
In cases of Allogenic donors, most of the time siblings become the ideal donor however parents could also become donors due to genetic compatibility.
If in case it gets difficult to get an ideal match from the siblings, parents, or another close family member the stem cells are taken from an outside donor. For this, there are special centers that are associated with Bone marrow transplant centers, wherein the registry is done and the suitable donor is found for the recipient.
The process is quick and the recipients are informed as soon as possible whether the outside donor match is available or not.
Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant – It cost on an average $45000 – USD 55000
Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplant – It cost on an average $65000 – USD 85000
Umbilical cord Bone marrow Transplant – It cost on an average $55000 – USD 66000.
Unrelated/Haploidentical Bone marrow transplant – It cost on as average $90000 – USD120000.
However, the cost of the bone marrow transplant also depends on various other factors like –
When the marrow of a person becomes diseased and is unable to carry out the healthy functioning of the body, Healthy stem cells are transplanted to regain the normal functioning of the body.
Following conditions might require bone marrow transplant –
What are the preparations done for Bone Marrow Transplant?
Firstly the tests and investigations are done and depending on the disease and requirement bone marrow transplant is advised for the patient.
Everything is kept in kind before planning the stem cells transplant procedure it includes the age, associated illness, overall health of the patient. Stem cells transplant also has its own risk so this is kept in mind and thorough investigation is done for the patient.
Doctors would advise you to start your hospital stay 5-6 days before the bone marrow transplant procedure or to have regular visits in the outpatient department. This is done to maintain overall health and prepare the body for transplant. Other than this some patients might require few doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy before starting the healthy stem cells transplant.
How to remove stem cells from blood
In this procedure, firstly through the use of some drug stem cells production in the body is increased beforehand. These increases stem cells production in the body. Blood is taken from the body and stem cells are separated with the help of a machine and the blood is returned to the body. In this procedure hospital stay is not required and the patient is discharged in few hours.
The procedure is painless and is repeated if enough stem cells collection is not done.
How to remove stem cells from marrow
In this method, stem cells are collected from the hip bone, with the help of a needle. The needle is inserted into the hip and the marrow is collected. This procedure is done under general anesthesia. After the anesthesia wears off donor might experience some pain afterward.
Autologous bone marrow transplant – In this procedure patient itself is the donor. Thus the procedure is carried out this way –
Allogeneic bone marrow transplant – In this procedure the following steps are included.
The success rate of the bone marrow transplant depends on various factors
Firstly the overall health of the patient is important to get success and early recovery once the transplant is done. If the patient is healthy and is not having other chronic co-morbidities the transplant rate success increases to much extent.
Age is another important marker, young adults with a healthy body are at less risk of complications and their recovery is also fast and good.
The type of disease also plays a major role. Severe diseases like leukemia, other blood cancers can be treated easily with bone marrow transplants thus success rate is high in such cases.
However, the success rate of bone marrow transplants in Turkey is around 95 percent but the successful outcome varies from person to person depending on the above-mentioned factor too.
Any complex medical procedure carries its risks and complications. Although the overall health status of the patient, the comorbidities, and the type of transplant everything plays a major role.
Some serious complications include the failure of the graft, disrupting the functioning of vital organs, and infections.
Engraftment is the process that takes around 10-30 days in which post bone marrow transplant, new and healthy cells are formed sometimes engraftment happen post month too. Once the transplant is done these cells reach and marrow and normal functioning of the body starts.
Hospitalization is important during the engraftment period, however, depending on the individual case more stay might be required.
The recovery period in bone marrow transplant might take 3 months to 6 months sometimes to year.
Once a bone marrow transplant is done you would be advised for regular follow-up visits along with having a good and healthy lifestyle.
If the stem cells are taken from the patient itself, the risk of rejection of stem cells by the body is negligible but if the stem cells are taken from some other donor sometimes the body might reject the cells. To reduce the chances of this, your doctor would prescribe you immunosuppressant medications.
Immunosuppressants prevent rejection and prevent the patient from infections.
For two to three weeks antibiotics are also given to prevent the chances of infection.
A healthy lifestyle is of utmost importance during the recovery period. A good diet that includes more intake of green leafy vegetables, fruits, pulses, fish is important.
Yoga and meditation are important in the recovery period for a healthy body and peaceful mind.
The patient is advised to stop alcohol, quit smoking, stop the intake of unhealthy and fried and too much salty food.
The patient is advised to start light exercise and small works t maintain a healthy weight and improve body strength.
The recovery period in Bone Marrow Transplant is long term process. The patient might feel anxiety and depression and struggle to resume daily activities soon and modified lifestyle changes.
Support your loved ones if they are going through this phase, help them in easing their anxiety. Talk with their health care provider and based on their advice provide them the mental and emotional support they thrive.
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