Aspiration of Bone Marrow From the Iliac Crest

Bone marrow was obtained in living patients for the first time in 1903 independently by Pianese1and Wolff.2These authors punctured the femur and the tibia respectively in search of another diagnostic aid in detecting parasitic infestation. At first this method of bone marrow study didnot gain much recognition, since these sites of puncture in adults normally contain little active marrow and therefore failed to prove of diagnostic value in hematologic investigation. It was only twenty years later that interest in bone marrow studies in vivo was reawakened when Seyfarth3in 1923 trephined the sternum and ribs in order to obtain hemopoietically active bone marrow. It remained for Arinkin4further to simplify the procedure by introducing in 1928 the technic of aspiration of the sternum, rendering examination of bone marrow a readily available and routine hematologic procedure. The sternum became the site of election for obtaining