A rare autologous bone marrow cell transplant was performed at city-based Raj Hospital on Tuesday, which hospital authorities claimed to be the first ever such “high-tech” procedure performed in Jharkhand.

“This is the first time that bone marrow cell transplant has been performed in Jharkhand. Earlier, patients in need of this therapy had to spend a huge sum of money and get treated in the bigger cities,” said Yogesh Gambhir, the Chairman of Raj Hospital. “Stem cell therapy is a part of regenerative medicine and is considered a high-tech treatment currently available only in bigger cities like Mumbai and Delhi,” he added.

Stem cell therapy in the form of autologous bone marrow cell transplant is a surgical procedure, where bone marrow is collected from the hip bone and processed with Indian FDA approved kit.

The application of autologous bone marrow cell concentrate has shown excellent results and safety in intractable diseases like spinal cord injury, Arthritis knee, muscular dystrophies, cerebral palsy with global developmental delay and lung fibrosis, a communique from Raj Hospital stated.

The transplant on Tuesday was performed by Dr BS Rajput, a renowned stem cell transplant surgeon from Mumbai and a visiting Professor of Regenerative medicine.

The procedure was performed on two boys suffering from Advanced Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a deadly genetic disorder of muscles, where most of the patients die between the age of 13 years to 23 years due to heart or lung failure, said Gambhir, who also happens to the be president of the Association of Healthcare Providers.

Both the boys treated on Tuesday are originally from Bihar and they are

under treatment of Dr Rajput since 2010.

Since this procedure is expensive, the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) is funding it for poor and eligible patients, said Gambhir. Dr Rajput, he added, would perform this procedure once in a month in Ranchi.

Dr Rajput will attend patients of intractable diseases at Raj hospital on the second Monday of every month, the press communique from this hospital further stated.