Evaluating Effectiveness of Powered Drill Bone Marrow Biopsy

Since the introduction of the Jamshidi needle in 1971, new advances in bone marrow sampling have not been seen. In 2007, a new battery-powered bone marrow biopsy system was developed. This technology, using a battery-powered drill to operate the needle accessing the posterior iliac bone, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently commercially available. Few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have compared the use of the battery-powered bone marrow biopsy system to the Jamshidi needle (the traditional manual) method of bone marrow sampling. This research study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Jamshidi needle compared to the battery-powered bone marrow biopsy system. 100 participants will be enrolled in this study at Emory University.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. Assessing the quality and quantity of bone marrow core biopsies. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. Assessing the nature of pain by established visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaires. II. Timing of the actual procedure. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms. ARM I: Patients undergo bone marrow biopsy using the power drill. ARM II: Patients undergo bone marrow biopsy using the traditional Jamshidi needle. All patients complete questionnaires at baseline, 30 minutes after biopsy, and on days 1, 3, and 7. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up periodically.