Hi Richard. Oh bummer, I know this is frustrating and disappointing for you to have a ‘failed’ bone marrow biopsy. No one looks forward to having a repeat.

It sounds like you maybe had a dry tap where there just isn’t enough of the liquid portion of your bone marrow to aspirate. There are two portions to a bmbx. (Bone marrow biopsy and exam) The core sample of the marrow itself and the aspirate, which takes the liquid portion to analyze. The liquid portion of the biopsy provides material for flow and molecular studies. If there isn’t enough of this ‘liquid’ portion, from my understanding, it can be difficult to get a broad perspective of the types of cells and to give a definitive diagnosis.
Most often when a dry tap occurs it’s not through the fault of the technician but that there may be an underlying issue with the marrow itself. Were the core marrow sample results inconclusive too?
Have you spoken to your doctor yet or did this information just pop up in your portal?

What does it mean if the collections weren’t sufficient.