Outcomes and Complications After Bone Marrow Aspirate Harvest From the Calcaneus

Bone marrow aspirate (BMA) is used with the putative goal of enhancing healing of injured tissue. The most common sites to harvest BMA are the iliac crest, the tibia, and the calcaneus. Investigators have found that the tibia and calcaneus have fewer progenitor cells than the iliac crest. This retrospective review evaluates the efficacy and safety profile of harvesting BMA from the calcaneus bone. We hypothesized that harvesting BMA from the calcaneus will have high efficacy and safety profile with low complication rates.

A retrospective chart review of patients undergoing bone marrow aspiration from the calcaneus bone from January 2019 to October 2022 was performed. The main data points evaluated were patient satisfaction and pain level, follow-up times, quantity of BMA harvested, fusion rates, and complications including nerve damage, infections, and nonunions.

There were 45 (34 female and 11 male) patients who underwent 45 procedures. The average age, BMI, and amount of BMA were 45.1 years (range 23-79), 33.1 (range 19.2-61.3), and 10.3 mL (range 2-40), respectively. There was no pain reported at the final follow-up in 32 patients (71.1%), and there was minimal to no pain in the area of surgery in the remaining 13 patients (28.9%). The 10 cases of fusion successfully healed with combined use of allograft and BMA. The average follow-up time was 12.3 months (range 2.4-33.7). There were no infections, wound complications, or nerve injuries.

Harvesting BMA from the calcaneus bone is a safe procedure. In this heterogenous series where BMA augmented other surgical strategies, patients had little to no pain and there were no cases of wound complication or iatrogenic neuropraxia after undergoing bone marrow harvest from the calcaneus.

Level IV, case series.