[Treatment of bone marrow aplasia by allogenic bone marrow grafts]

Three patients with severe aplastic anemia were treated by bone marrow transplantation using the method described by Santos and Thomas. Two of the patients, both successfully grafted have survived for more than 5 and 6 months respectively. Chimerism was proved by cytogenetic analysis and erythrocytic phenotypes. In one case, a severe graft versus host reaction was cured with ATG and prednisone. Graft rejection in the third case was related to the immunisation caused by many previous transfusions. Although bone marrow grafting is limited by the necessity of using a matched sibling as donor, its success this far is very encouraging and represents a new hope for the treatment of aplastic anemia.