Guidelines of the Brazilian society of bone Marrow transplantation on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a treatment for the autoimmune diseases systemic sclerosis and multiple sclerosis

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been used with increasing frequency over the last 16 years, albeit still experimentally. Data is available from the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR) totaling more than 300 transplant recipients by 2008(1). In 2009, a Consensus Meeting was held to review available evidence on the subject of autoimmune diseases(2). The procedure has improved and the incidence of complications and mortality decreased over time. There are still many points of discussion, some of which should be clarified by ongoing randomized studies. This consensus paper aims to gather data available in the international literature and to compare it to the Brazilian experience in order to establish evidence-based recommendations for the application of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in the treatments of systemic and multiple sclerosis in Brazil.