English

Abstract

The bone marrow examination is valuable in the diagnosis of certain hematological and non-hematological conditions and has been a cornerstone of hematology practice. Bone marrow can be obtained in two ways: 1.by needle aspiration and 2.by trephine biopsy. Initially, aspiration techniques were more popular in view of the simplicity of the procedure, good representation of marrow cells' morphology and ready acceptability by the patient. However knowledge about diagnostic limitations of aspirated marrow, coupled with introduction of simplified percutaneous needle biopsy procedures (under local anesthesia) led to a progressive increase in the use of bone marrow trephine biopsy as an indispensable adjunct to bone marrow aspirations. In this study we compared results and utility of bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy. Total 27 BMA and BMB were performed. BMA alone is sufficient in making diagnosis in 70% cases while remaining 30% cases required BMB for diagnosis. Bone marrow aspirate smears are ideal for the study of cytological details of haemopoietic cells. Trephine biopsies are superior to bone marrow aspirates particularly for the assessment of cellularity, extent and pattern of tumor infiltration and cell type. Valuable information on the status of hematopoiesis and changes in stromal components is also provided by trephine biopsy specimen.