Cord Blood Complications
Cord blood is a good way to help save someone's life. Taking the blood from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby to extract stem cells is a great way to study, reverse and cure serious diseases. The blood is carefully screened and the procedures are tested to ensure accuracy and safety in the cord blood registries and cord blood banks.
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Correcting Errors
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Sometimes something goes wrong with the process of transplanting a baby's umbilical cord blood to another patient. It doesn't happen often, but the procedure isn't perfect, and does have room for error. Studies are done to correct the errors so that they don't repeat, just as studies are done on the blood and procedures.
Donor Rejection
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There are transplants that take place with the blood from a person not related to the patient. Even if the blood seemed to be a match for the patient on first examination, sometimes the patient's body will reject the blood as though it were rejecting a organ from a donor. In these instances, measures have to be taken to secure the accuracy of the blood-testing before it is ever transplanted.
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GVHD
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A similar problem occurs when the patient receives the donor's blood and his body doesn't recognize the immune cells of the donor's blood. This condition is called Graft-Versus-Host Disease or GVHD. A person with GVHD will develop thinning hair, fragile nails, appetite and weight loss either immediately or months after receiving the donor's blood.
GVHD Treatment
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Sometimes the symptoms of GVHD are chronic, but for only a few years. GVHD should be treated as early as it is detected. Most of the treatments for GVHD consist of administering immuno-suppressive drugs such as prednisone or cyclosporine to the patient.
Leukemia
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Another sadly serious complication of cord blood transplantation is when a recipient develops leukemia. This happens when hematopoietic cells are transplanted. These are stem cells that only develop into different kinds of blood cells. Only 25 cases have been reported so far of leukemia being contracted after transplantation.
Prolapsed Umbilical Cord
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Sometimes when the baby is being delivered, he or she experiences a prolapsed umbilical cord. A prolapsed umbilical cord is when the umbilical cord is delivered before the baby is. The baby puts pressure on the umbilical cord and could possibly cut off the oxygen supply. Oxygen is vital to blood and survival. This will affect the condition of the cord blood.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt
