In November 1995, a special department for the transplantation of haematogenous cells was established at the University Children’s Hospital and Clinic (UCHC) in Bratislava. The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) of the Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Clinic in the UCHC in Bratislava is the only one of its kind in Slovakia, where the transplantation of haematogenous cells in cases of children (ranging from 0 to 18) with oncology, serious haematology and metabolic issues (as well as some congenital malfunctioning of the immune system) are conducted.
Since its establishment, the BMTU has undergone many adjustments as far as medical and technical equipment is concerned. The unit was reconstructed completely and its capacity was expanded in 2011, thanks to the Pinch of Hope Foundation and the financial aid of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. During its 20-year existence, more than 320 transplantations in children with the aforementioned diseases have been conducted in this department. As in every other paediatric transplant centre, the children with malignant diseases (especially with acute leukaemia and malignant tumours which are typical of childhood) make up two thirds of all patients. Almost two thirds of total transplantations came from healthy family members or voluntary non-related donors from the international registers in Europe; more than one third were autologous (the patient himself/herself was the donor of the haematogenous cells).
The BMTU has been a long-recognized member of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), and the results the Unit has achieved using this therapy can be compared to the results of the paediatric transplant centres in the most developed countries in Europe. As far as children with the malignant diseases are concerned, the success rate of recovery after the allogene transplantation is above 60 %. The success rate of recovery of patients with non-malignant diseases reaches almost 90 %, whereas none of the children with such diagnoses would survive without transplantation, since the above stated diseases cannot be cured using any other medical procedure.
                                                                                                                                                                            Nadácia Kvapka nádeje