Bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION (BMT) is a treatment used in some types of cancer.Bone marrow is the soft, spongy area in the center of some of the larger bones of the body. The marrow produces all of the different cells that make up the blood, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. All of these cells develop from a type of basic cell found in the bone marrow, called a stem cell.In bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION, the patient is given very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which kills cancer cells and destroys all the normal cells developing in the bone marrow, including the critical stem cells. After the treatment, the patient must have a healthy supply of hematopoietic stem cells reintroduced, or transplanted.There are two types of bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION, autologous and allogeneic. An autologous bone marrow transplant uses a patient's own bone marrow or blood. An allogeneic bone marrow transplantat uses a donor's bone marrow or blood. The donor is usually a relative of the patient (eg, sister), although unrelated donors are sometimes used.Most patients who have bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION must remain in the hospital for several days or weeks during their treatment and recovery. It is important to understand and follow the hospital's bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION treatment plan to minimize the risk of complications (eg, infection) and to know what to expect in advance.The treatments required before and during bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION can have serious side effects. Patients should be aware of the most common side effects (eg, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, mouth sores) as well as the types of treatments that are available to improve comfort.Following bone marrow TRANSPLANTATION, most people stay in the hospital for several weeks. However, even after going home, frequent visits with a doctor or nurse are needed for 3 to 6 months.

Although the number of children with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in need for renal TRANSPLANTATION is small compared with adults, the problem associated with renal transplant in children are numerous, varied, and often peculiar. Pre-emptive TRANSPLANTATION has recently been growing in popularity as it avoids many of the associated long-term complications of ESRD and dialysis. Changes in immunosuppression to more potent agents over the years will have affected transplant outcome; there is also evidence that tacrolimus is more effective than cyclosporine. This review will discuss the short- and long-term complications such as acute and chronic rejection, hypertension, infections, and malignancies as well as factors related to long-term graft function.Chronic allograft nephropathy is the leading cause of renal allograft loss in pediatric renal transplant recipients. It is likely that it reflects a combination of both immune and nonimmune injury occurring cumulatively over time so that the ultimate solution will rely on several approaches. Transplant and patient survival have shown a steady increase over the years. The major causes of death after TRANSPLANTATION are cardiovascular disease, infection and malignancy. TRANSPLANTATION in special circumstances such as children with abnormal urinary tracts and children with diseases that have the potential to recur after TRANSPLANTATION will also be discussed in this review. Non-compliance with therapeutic regimen is a difficult problem to deal with and affects patients and families at all ages, but particularly so at adolescence. Growth may be severely impaired in children with ESRD which may result in major consequences on quality of life and self-esteem; a better height attainment at TRANSPLANTATION is recognized as one of the most important factors in final height achievement.Although pediatric kidney TRANSPLANTATION is active in some parts of many developing countries, it is still inactive in many others and mostly relying on living donors. The lacking deceased programs in most of these countries is one of the main issues to be addressed to adequately respond to organ shortage.In conclusion, TRANSPLANTATION is currently the best option for children with ESRD. Although improvement in immunosuppression demonstrated excellent results and has led to greater 1-year graft survival rates, chronic graft loss remains relatively unchanged and opportunistic infectious complications remain a problem.

The past decade has witnessed the revival of amniotic membrane TRANSPLANTATION (AMT) in ophthalmology. The importance of amniotic membrane lies in its ability to reduce inflammation and scarring, enhance epithelialization and wound healing, and in its antimicrobial properties. Amniotic membrane has recently been used as a substrate for culturing limbal stem cells for TRANSPLANTATION. It has also been used extensively in corneal conditions such as neurotrophic ulcers, persistent epithelial defects, shield ulcers, microbial keratitis, band keratopathy, bullous keratopathy, and following photorefractive keratectomy and chemical injuries. Other indications for AMT include ocular surface reconstruction surgery for conjunctival pathologies such as squamous neoplasia, pterygium, and symblepharon. In this review we describe the basic structure and properties of amniotic membrane, its preparation process and its applications in ophthalmology.

Background: Kidney TRANSPLANTATION is the best available treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease.Objective: To evaluate the en bloc anastomosis technique for unilateral dual kidney TRANSPLANTATION (DKT).Methods: From May to October 2011, 5 patients (4 women and 1 man) with mean age of 31.8 years underwent unilateral DKT with this technique in which distal end of the aorta and proximal end of inferior vena cava (IVC) were closed with running sutures. Then, proximal end of the aorta and distal end of the IVC were anastomosed to internal (or external) iliac artery and external iliac vein, respectively.Results: Post-operative course was uneventful. No vascular and urologic complications developed; all patient had acceptable serum creatinine at discharge time and up of 2–6 months of post-operation follow up.Conclusion: Unilateral DKT is a safe method for performing DKT. The proposed en bloc anastomosis can improve the outcome of the graft by reducing the cold ischemia and the operation time.