The bone marrow as a source of laboratory studies.

The intraosseous route is an emergency alternative to the IV route for the administration of drugs and fluids. Another emergency function of intravascular access is obtaining blood samples for blood gases, laboratory studies, and blood cultures. One of the drawbacks to using the intraosseous route as an alternative to IV access has been the persistent need to establish IV access to obtain blood samples. We obtained bone marrow samples from ten healthy anesthetized dogs and analyzed the usefulness of the samples in providing meaningful laboratory studies when compared with simultaneous arterial and venous samples for blood electrolytes, blood chemistries, blood gases, and hemoglobin. There was no significant difference (P greater than .10) in blood electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride, and carbon dioxide) drawn from the intraosseous, arterial, and venous sites. The blood chemistries (blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, total protein, albumin, calcium, phosphorous, uric acid, total bilirubin, and SGOT) also were not significantly different (P greater than .10). Significant differences were obtained for glucose comparing intraosseous with arterial (P = .03), whereas intraosseous versus venous was only marginally significant (P = .06). Significant differences were also obtained for alkaline phosphatase when comparing intraosseous with arterial (P = .03), whereas comparison with venous was only marginally significant (P = .06): lactate dehydrogenase differences were marginally significant when comparing intraosseous with arterial (P = .09) and venous (P = .06) blood. Hemoglobin values were not significantly different when comparing results for the three sites (P greater than .25).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)