How is the bone marrow collected?
Whether the patient or a donor provides the bone marrow to be used in transplant, the process — which is called the bone marrow harvest — is the same. The bone marrow harvest takes place in an operating room, usually under general anesthesia. It involves little risk and minimal discomfort. When the patient or donor is under anesthesia, the physician inserts a needle into the cavity of the rear hipbone, where a large quantity of bone marrow is located. Several skin punctures on each hip and multiple bone punctures are usually required to extract the requisite amount of bone marrow. There are no surgical incisions or stitches involved, only skin punctures where the needle was inserted.
