Why does a bone marrow test hurt so much?!


Question: Why does a bone marrow test hurt so much.?
why can't they put you under for it.?Health Question & Answer


Answers:
It hurts so much because bone is pretty hard, and a lot of force is used and tissue damage happens... And a cut or a bruise to a bone takes a long time to heal.

They CAN put you under for it, or for anything else. They CAN put you under for almost anything that does not require conscious activation of voluntary nerves... the reason that they don't is that it takes so short a time to get the bone marrow, and anesthesia is risky and has side effects (and i suspect because few doctors doing it have experienced it themselves). Locals are not very effective because bones are slow to notice it unless yo inject the bone - which would be as painful as the test... since to do that you have to poke a hole in the bone for that too.Health Question & Answer

How the test will feel:

The specimen is collected from the back of the pelvic bone or from the sternum. The area is cleansed with antibacterial soap. The skin over the bone is numbed with an anesthetic (a bee-sting sensation), then a larger needle is inserted through the skin into the bone and pushed into the cavity of the bone that contains the marrow.

A sample of bone marrow is aspirated into a syringe for analysis. Pressure and pain may occur with this procedure. Soreness at the site usually lasts from only hours to a day or two.

If a bone marrow biopsy is also performed, a larger hollow-core needle is inserted, and a core sample of bone marrow is removed. A portion of the sample can be examined (biopsy sample) and another portion can be sent for culture. A bone marrow biopsy may cause feelings of pressure or pain. The pain is minimized with anesthesia of the bone (local anesthetic injected near the bone).Health Question & Answer

The entire test from beginning of prep til the end is less than 10 mins. The painful part is less than 60 seconds or so, providing the person doing it knows what they are doing. The risks of general anesthesia or even conscious sedation just arent worth it. You SHOULD be able to ask for an IV dose of ativan though. I wont let them touch me without having 2mg of IV ativan before doing it.

It hurts so much because even though its liquid, its a part of a whole.. taking the sample is the equivalent of taking out a peice of skin, only in the bone. And on top of that, you cant numb the bone.Health Question & Answer

general anesthesia has its own risks -including death. the pain comes from the nerve endings throughout the different tissue types and the bone itself.Health Question & Answer



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