DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i03.027

Pages: 835-837

This study was carried out to analyse the clinical and hematological findings in children below 15 years presenting with pancytopenia and to identify the different causes of pancytopenia based on bone marrow examination. It was a retrospective and prospective study conducted over a period of 4 years in the Hematology section of Department of Pathology, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, a tertiary care hospital in Odisha, India. It included hospitalized children below 15 years who presented with pancytopenia .Detail clinical history & hematological findings were recorded, peripheral blood smears were studied. Bone marrow aspiration smears & trephine biopsy were examined. A total of 53 cases were included in our study group. They underwent bone marrow aspiration for pancytopenia and it constituted 15.6 % of the total cases. Age range was 1-14 years. Male: female ratio was 1:1.3. The commonest cause was megaloblastic anemia seen in 25 cases (47.2%) followed by aplastic / hypoplastic anemia in 10 cases (18.9%), and hematological malignancy in 7 cases (13.2%). Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the commonest hematological malignancy. Bone marrow aspiration is an easy and safe procedure to establish diagnosis in cases of pancytopenia in children. Megaloblastic anemia was the commonest diagnosis in our study. Since it is a easily treatable condition, early identification & prompt notification can have positive impact in the further management of these patients