Experience with marrow harvesting from donors less than two years of age

Experience in harvesting marrow for allogeneic marrow transplantation from 23 infant donors is presented. Ten donors were less than one year of age and 13 were between one and two years of age at the time of initial donation. None of these donors experienced major difficulties following the aspiration procedure. Three donors had significant medical problems diagnosed during the pre-donation evaluation. All aspirations were performed from iliac crests and all donors were given general anesthesia. Irradiated blood bank transfusions were given to 85% of the donors during the procedure. The volume of marrow obtained ranged from 11.5 to 19.3 ml/kg donor weight and contained from 2.5 to 10.4 x 10(8) nucleated cells/kg donor weight. Thus, very young children may safely donate marrow for allogeneic transplantation and the nucleated cell count obtained is substantial.