are cavitations normal to bone marrow?
Small ones are probably common, especially in bone harvested from autopsy and cadaver cases, which usually represent individuals who underwent ischemic changes secondary to terminal diseases and their associated treatments, e.g. cachexia, osteoporosis, cancer chemotherapy, etc. Small cavitations are quite common in osteoporotic marrow. In this regard, however, cavitations are no more “normal” than are atherosclerotic coronary arteries in men over 65 years of age. We should not confuse common with normal. Graff-Radford concluded from a gross examination of a few dozen cadaver jaws that small cavitations were normal, but his data could just as easily be used to conclude that terminally ill individuals frequently suffer from ischemic events. The microscopic review of dozens of cadaver mandibles and maxillae by one of us (JEB) has not confirmed necrotic changes in tissues surrounding such small cavitations (unpublished data), but then again, even very large cavitations may be lined by appa
