While the above process is taking place, the person is then put through a cleansing system in order to eliminate cells in the bone marrow that are in the body. Chemotherapy or radiation treatments will suppress the immune system dramatically and the cleaning is usually achieved through this high dosage. Once this phase is done, the purification phase of the stem cells begins. The purified stem cells from the extraction are inserted back into the body, where with hope will repopulate the marrow with cells that are healthy.

This is a very risky procedure and is only done on people with severe and life threatening arthritis. One risk is that the body’s defense mechanisms are completely wiped out, which means that even a common cold or a harmless and normal virus could lead to a serious infection that could be life threatening. Another risk could be that the transplanted cells won’t repopulate successfully. This means that the immune system could be partially effective or not at all. Due to these risks about 5-15 percent of all stem-cell transplants are fatal.

If you go stem-cell transplant you can expect to be in the hospital for several weeks and even many months. The length of time depends on how your body reacts, the complications that come up, and how fast the stem cells develop into an adequate immune system.