Bone marrow biopsy is a commonly practiced procedure in hospitals used for a number of purposes, such as diagnosing blood diseases and gauging a patient's response to chemotherapy, etc. The procedure is relatively simple, but crude. The physician uses a specially designed needle to penetrate the tissue and the bone. Currently, the method by which a physician determines whether or not the needle is in the marrow is by his or her judgment/feeling from a slight reduction in pressure while the needle advances from bone to the bone marrow region. We present a re-design of a bone marrow biopsy needle that will increase the efficiency and success rate of the procedure. The design incorporates a dual-fiber optic cable system into a needle in order to achieve the purpose. Low power laser light (5 mW) is transmitted down one fiber optic cable through the needle and the reflected light is caught by the second fiber optic cable and is analyzed as the needle tip moves through the tissue. A distinct difference in reflectivity exists between the bone and marrow that can be detected and used to send a signal alerting the user of the exact needle tip location. This in turn will increase the probability of obtaining an adequate marrow sample, as well as simplifying the procedure, reducing patient discomfort, and preventing the need to use more than one needle biopsy due to procedural errors.
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