A review of the haematopoietic stem cell donation experience: is there room for improvement?

Donation of haematopoietic stem cells, either through BM or PBSC collection, is a generally safe procedure for healthy donors although adverse reactions are a definite risk. The invaluable source of donation and its central role in transplantation implies that every effort should be made to alleviate possible difficulties the donor encounters. The physical and psychological reactions to donation have been established for some time, but less is known about the factors that are associated with a poorer donation experience. In this article, we provide an overview of the physical and psychological donation experience and focus attention on demographic, physical and psychological factors that may influence this donation experience. Understanding that toxicity profiles vary with certain donor characteristics is crucial as this knowledge could influence practice in numerous ways including the modification of joining and recruitment policies and the improvement of supportive measures and donor follow-up procedures. Although this review deals with both unrelated and related donors (RDs), there is a relative paucity of regulation of RD care and we call for more attention to this area. Owing to the relative rarity of donation in each country, a global effort to collect donor outcome data is needed.