How does cord blood transplantation compare with traditional bone marrow transplantation?
The potential advantages of umbilical cord blood include the following: • Cord blood is easier to procure. • Cord blood collection is a painless, non-invasive procedure that does not require general anesthesia. • There is no potential risk to the baby. No potential maternal risk is associated with postplacental delivery. • The infant donor is less likely to be infected with infectious pathogens such as cytomegalovirus, (CMV), and adenovirus. • On the other hand, other infectious agents can be transmitted from the mother to the infant during the pregnancy or at the time of birth and may be present in the cord blood unit. The mother serves as a surrogate source of information of health and family history. • There is shorter search for a matched cord blood donor. • Cord blood does not have to match the recipient’s tissue type as closely as that in a bone marrow transplant. • As the number of cord blood units collected from ethnically diverse populations increase, the search for a match be
