Comparison between 1-needle technique versus 2-needle technique for bone marrow aspiration and biopsy procedures

Context.—Bone marrow examination is essential for diagnosis and staging of hematologic disorders. Traditionally, the bone marrow biopsy and aspirate are obtained with 2 needles at 2 separate sites. This approach is associated with significant discomfort, procedural time, and occasionally, morbidity. Although previous observations had suggested that a single-needle technique at one site is a simpler and less-painful procedure, there had been concern that the 1-needle technique may yield a suboptimal biopsy for diagnosis. Objective.—To conduct a systematic comparison of multiple parameters of bone marrow biopsy specimens obtained by the traditional 2-needle technique versus the 1-needle technique for bone marrow collection. Design.—We retrospectively evaluated 20 biopsy specimens obtained by each of the 2 mentioned techniques by comparing the morphologic quality of the biopsy, biopsy length, and biopsy cellularity. Results.—We found that the 1-needle technique yielded an adequate biopsy for diagnosis. The measured parameters of the samples obtained by the 1-needle versus 2-needle techniques were similar. Conclusion.—This study suggests that the 1-needle technique may be preferred for bone marrow aspirate and biopsy.