Bone marrow aspiration before bone marrow core biopsy using the same bone marrow biopsy needle: a good or bad practice?
- Correspondence to: Dr A Islam Division of Haematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Buffalo General Hospital, 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
- Accepted 21 March 2006
- Published Online First 2 June 2006
Abstract
A single-needle single-site technique for bone marrow aspiration and core biopsy has been compared with a two-needle technique, using 30 randomly selected patients who required these two investigations. In addition, two single-needle techniques were compared, aspirating immediately after penetrating the cortex or, alternatively, aspirating after the needle (without the stilette) had been advanced 20–25 mm. The two-needle technique was found to be superior to either of the single-needle techniques, which often resulted in a biopsy specimen that was denuded of bone marrow cells.
Footnotes
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Funding: The author has not received any financial support for the preparation of this scientific report.
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Competing interests: None declared.
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I wish to disclose that I am the designer of the bone marrow needles used in this study, and they are commercially available through a manufacturer of medical instrumentation.
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Published Online First 2 June 2006
