First ever half-matched bone-marrow transplantation Successfully done at Yashoda Hospitals

Hyderabad, August 13, 2015: 42 year old Satish Vakiti, father of two young kids, has been saved from a life threatening blood cancer by successfully performing a Haploidentical (half matched) bone-marrow transplantation here at Yashoda Hospitals,Somajiguda. This was a very rare procedure, first ever done successfully in the state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Half – matched bone marrow transplantation is a highly risky and complex procedure. It demands an expertise and great care to perform. Satish, a small time trader from Saidabad in the city was struck with a type of blood cancer, called Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), two years ago. He underwent three cycles of chemotherapy but the dreaded disease re-emerged three months ago with full force thus making his chances of survival absolutely bleak and slim. The only hope of his survival was bone-marrow transplantation. To do this, a HLA matched bone marrow donor should be found among his siblings.

 However, none of the siblings were found to be fully HLA matched with him. The option of searching for an unrelated HLA matched donor has been ruled out as it is a time consuming process. On the other hand the patient’s condition was fast deteriorating. Under these compelling circumstances, performing an ultra complicated bone marrow transplant with a half HLA matched brother was the only option available, to rescue him.

  Adding to the complexities, Satish was also found to have a chronic liver disease related to HCV infection. His distraught family had visited many transplant centers across India to get him saved. However, he was denied transplant due to his high risk condition and associated complications. Finally, the bone marrow transplantation center at Yashoda Hospital Somajiguda led by Dr. Ganesh Jaishetwar, decided to take up the challenge. Dr. Ganesh and his team have so far done 20 bone marrow transplants successfully over the last one year including both Autologous (using patient’s own stem cells) and Allogeneic (bone marrow of a compatible donor) transplants. Haplo-identical transplant was performed successfully on Satish and his marrow was completely replaced with that of his brothers’. In three weeks, after this rare procedure was conducted, the patient’s overall health condition showed considerable signs of improvement. The grafted stem cells in his bone marrow were found to have started harvesting healthy blood cells – a sign of new life.