On March 25, Hue Central Hospital announced that it had just organized a discharge ceremony for patient Hoang T.M. (7 years old, from Lao Cai) - the 15th bone marrow transplant to treat Thalassemia at the unit.
The patient was diagnosed with Beta-Thalassemia from the age of 8 months, had to have periodic blood transfusions every 3-4 weeks and used iron excretion drugs from the age of 3. MRI results showed moderate to severe iron retention in the liver.
After inquiring, the family took the child to Hue for bone marrow transplantation. Test results showed that the child was compatible with HLA 12/12 with his 11-year-old biological sister. The hospital held a consultation and performed stem cell transplantation.
During treatment, the patient encountered some complications such as infection, bladder hemorrhage, CMV reactivation. However, thanks to close monitoring and timely treatment, the child's health is currently stable, blood cell flow is recovering well and is eligible for discharge.
According to doctors, Thalassemia is a common hereditary hematology disease. In Vietnam, there are about 2,000 - 2,500 children with severe forms each year. Patients have to receive blood transfusions and iron excretion for life, facing many complications in the heart, liver, kidneys and endocrine system. Stem cell transplantation is currently the only treatment method that can help cure the disease completely.
As a special-class hospital under the Ministry of Health, Hue Central Hospital is one of the pioneering units in deploying organ transplantation and stem cell transplantation techniques. Since 2019, the hospital has started performing stem cell transplantation in children, then expanded to treating Thalassemia, including cases of blood group incompatibility with desensibilization techniques.
From September 2024, the hospital officially deployed stem cell transplantation to treat Thalassemia, becoming the first unit in the Central - Central Highlands region and the second facility in the country to perform this technique. To date, the unit has performed 67 stem cell transplants in children, including 15 allogeneic transplants for children with thalassemia in 1.5 years.
Faced with increasing demand, the hospital has expanded the transplant room, allowing the simultaneous deployment of many cases. In the coming time, the unit plans to perform regular half-compatible transplantation for cases that do not have complete HLA compatibility with relatives.
