Photo In the hospital of St. Panteleimon performed bone marrow transplantation for the first time in Lviv. The patient was a resident of Ternopil region with multiple myeloma.
The First Medical Association of Lvov reported this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.
«The first bone marrow transplantation (BMT) at the St. Panteleimon Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lvov was successful. The patient is now in remission, the message says.
The first stem cell transplant patient was 57-year-old Oleg Rogozhinsky from Ternopil. Last year, the man began to feel bone pain, slight weakness and lost noticeable weight. Hemoglobin levels were low. A bone marrow puncture then revealed a super-severe oncological disease – multiple myeloma.
Multiple myeloma is a malignant disease of the hematopoietic system, in which an excessive number of plasma cells are formed in the bone marrow; a pathological protein destroys bones in the human body.
Treatment consists of several stages – chemotherapy to achieve remission of the disease, then BMT.
Rogozhinsky took chemistry courses in Ternopil. I came to Lviv for a bone marrow transplant, because the bone marrow transplant department was operating here.
«We performed an autologous bone marrow transplant on the patient. That is, they transplanted his own cells into him – not donor ones. We first took his own bone marrow cells, then gave him high-dose chemotherapy and infused those cells back into him. The goal of autologous transplantation for myeloma is to maintain as long a remission as possible, said Solomiya Glukhovskaya, head of the hematology department.
Three the patient spent weeks after transplantation in a special box – an isolated sterile room.
«Due to a weakened immune system, any virus could literally kill him. And this is one of the most difficult stages of treatment – to protect the patient from infections in the first weeks after transplantation. Our department has all the necessary safe conditions to do this,” explained the head of the anesthesiology service, Natalya Matolinets.
Already on the 21st day, Mr. Oleg went home – to his children and grandchildren.
As Ukrinform reported, Lviv cardiac surgeons transplanted a heart to a 42-year-old man, who could only be saved from death by an urgent transplant.