About the cord blood
transplant.

Bone marrow transplant.

Storing your child's cord blood could be invaluable to the future care of your child, a cord blood transplant can be used in place of a bone marrow transplant to help cure many different diseases. The act of removing the cord blood is simple, being extracted using a syringe or elevating the umbilical cord to allow the blood to drain into a sterile bag and is completely harmless to both baby and mother. More and more parents are requesting that cord blood is taken from their babies and cryogenically stored for use if required in the future.

Bone marrow transplant.

The only option for many people used to be a bone marrow transplant, because bone marrow is an excellent resource of blood stem cells, however stem cells research studies on bone cells have shown that the blood from umbilical cords and embryos creates more useful cell stems and in a more pure form. For this reason a cord blood transplant cannot only be used in instances that bone marrow transplants were used but also in other circumstances too.

The use of stem cells.

It has been proven that stem cells can be used to help cure diseases that are related to the degeneration of the immune and nervous systems as well as blood related diseases. There is currently a lot of research being undertaken to find out the true pro con of embryo stem cells although at present any discussion of the use of embryos in this fashion is steeped with heated debate regarding the embryonic stem cells abomination that many consider it to be.

Advantages of a stem cell transplant over a bone marrow transplant.

Collecting bone marrow requires donors to undergo general anesthesia and there is a reasonable amount of recovery time involved. Bone marrow donors need to matched to the patient in question to ensure a successful transplant whereas using a person's own cord blood guarantees that it will be a match. Currently only 50% of all patients who require a bone marrow transplant are successful in finding a suitable donor and having the transplant. By storing cord blood from the umbilical cord this will no longer be a problem.

The negatives of a stem cell transplant.

As with all medical treatments there are negatives as well as positives. Stem cells do take longer to hold in the bone marrow but there is much less likelihood of graft vs. host disease. This is where the new cells that are transplanted attach the patient. All in all the success is greater and the risks fewer but there is a longer recovery time associated with a stem cell transplant when compared to a bone marrow transplant.

Recovery from a stem cell transplant.

Because children are smaller and generally healthier they have an even greater chance of success and the recovery time for children is greatly reduced. By using a cord blood transplant children have a much greater chance of being cured; the main reason for this is that there is no matching of donor to patient required. A cord blood transplant can be used to help many different illnesses, not just blood related illnesses because stem cells can grow to create any of the major cells that the body requires to function healthily.

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