Complications

In the donor:

• complications of anaesthesia

In the recipient:

• graft versus host disease
• graft rejection - usually in patients with aplastic anaemia who do not receive total body irradiation
• bacterial, fungal and viral infection - for example, interstitial pneumonia due to cytomegalovirus which commonly occurs in the second month or later after transplantation. The incidence has been reduced by the use of CMV negative blood products in patients who lack CMV antibodies, the administration of CMV antibodies as intravenous immune globulin, and the prophylactic use of acyclovir or ganciclovir to patients at high risk
• hepatic veno-occlusive disease - may result in progressive hepatic failure and often, renal failure
• bleeding and drug toxicity