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Why is there a weight limit for donating bone marrow?
Most of the restrictions on donating bone marrow have to do with risk to the recipient. Fair enough: who wants to get cured of cancer only to get HIV?
Others have to do with risk to the donor. Also fair: we don't want to kill a healthy person in exchange for saving a sick one.
But obesity? Given that the sites encouraging donation make a point about how low-risk donating is, why is obesity in-and-of-itself a problem? I understand why common complications associated with obesity (like diabetes or heart disease) would be an issue, but (to put it bluntly) what if someone is just fat?
As someone who has been obese virtually my entire life, I don't understand this one. I am 29 years old with blood pressure on the low side of normal, normal blood sugars, normal cholesterol and I rarely get sick. Oh, and I've been a regular blood donor for 12 years (yes, since I was 17).
If my little brother (or someone else I loved) needed marrow, I would insist on being tested as a match and, if I matched, I would insist on being allowed to donate, regardless of risk. But how much risk is there really? And if it is a relatively low risk, shouldn't I be allowed to decide whether I am willing to take that risk on behalf of a stranger?
Flatpaw, do you have a reference for that? Because the idea that removing a small amount of flexible tissue from inside the outer structural parts of the bones would cause them to be unable to support my "freight" seems decidedly nonsensical from an engineering and biological sense.
And I the reason I asked this question was to figure out if this rule is "there for a reason" and, if so, what that reason is.
4 Answers
- FlatpawLv 79 years agoFavorite Answer
You need all your bone strength to support your freight. Don't argue with the rules; they are there for a reason.
- Anonymous5 years ago
There isnt a specific min weight, but if you are under weight they will screen you carefully for it if and when you are called to donate. If you donate actual marrow, it IS a surgical proceedure. You will be under general anesthesia while they harvest the marrow, but like any surgery, you will be sore after. But, most "marrow" donations today are actually peripheral blood stem cell donations. The same type of stem cell in the marrow that makes the transplant work is also in the circulating blood. Those cells are harvested using aphersis, which is the same proceedure as at the plasma center or some type of red cross donations like a double red cell donation (although collecting a different type of cell). It an out patient proceedure and the worst pain is getting the veinous access with a larger needle.
- gardengallivantLv 79 years ago
As I understand the problem is with the anesthesia you have to have to donate. It is harder to regulate breathing, heart rate and other autonomic functions when the patient is obese and under anesthesia. I presume the degree of obesity plays a factor in this as well as other fitness factors.
