Fr. Pat,
I have not seen any literature to suggest that there is a contraindication using filgrastim (neupogen) with someone with a solitary kidney. That is what I am interested in finding out. If you have access to any articles, would appreciate it. If someone is concerned, bone marrow harvest is available and this does not require the use of filgrastim. Depending on the diagnosis a decision to use bone marrow harvest or peripheral stem cells is made. At our institution we almost always use peripheral stem cells. For a bone marrow harvest, the doctor goes in to extract the bone marrow through the pelvic bone. this is an outpatient surgery that is done under general anesthesia and no filgrastim is used to mobilize the stem cells. The stem cell donor would have to undergo all the tests to see if they are healthy enough to donate so of course, blood pressure, BUN and creatinine would be looked at, EKG just to make sure they are healthy. We always request from donors not to use NSAIDs since it may increase bleeding, but Tylenol is ok, so that is fine for donors.
I received an email from one of the nurse coordinators in kidney transplant at my hospital asking if a kidney donor can register with NMDP. There is no harm in registering and then if she is a match she would undergo the pre transplant testing like any other donor. I updated my health information with NMDP after donating and was not made ineligible at the time.
My husband is actually scheduled to donate a second time on April 20. He matched someone in the registry in 2008 but the patient passed away, he matched again to someone in 2011 and donated and again matched now. He is 56. At our hospital we do not test donors over the age of 65 in general. It is harder to obtain stem cells in older donors.
Sherri