[Bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anemia--initial results in 8 patients]

8 young patients (aged 11 to 23 years) with severe aplastic anaemia received bone marrow grafts from their HLA-identical, MLC-non reactive siblings. All patients had received repeated transfusions previously and had been unsuccessfully treated with corticosteroids (7 out of the 8 patients) and/or anabolic drugs (4 out of the 8 patients). In order to prevent graft rejection 5 patients received donor buffy coat cells after the marrow infusion and 3 patients underwent total body irradiation with 400 rad prior to the marrow transplantation. 5 patients are alive, 3 patients died. Death occurred from Candida septicaemia (day 4 after transplantation), left ventricular failure (day 14) and graft versus host reaction of the gut (day 85). The 5 living patients are in a very good state of health 30 to 166 days after transplantation. 4 patients already have normal blood cell counts. 2 of the surviving patients developed a transient GVH-reaction of the liver. One patient had a mild GVH-reaction of the skin on day 130.