BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

Bone marrow transplantation is the intravenous infusion of hematopoietic progenitor cells to reestablish marrow function in a patient with damaged or defective bone marrow (Figure 1). Although some have traced the origin of this procedure to the end of the past century, when patients were given bone marrow orally as a treatment for hematologic disorders,1 a more realistic starting point is a 1939 report of a patient who received 18 ml of intravenous marrow from his brother as a treatment for aplastic anemia2. The beginning of modern bone marrow transplantation can be traced to work showing that rodents could. © 1994, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.