Surgical tissue banking encompasses the procurement, processing, preserving, storage and distribution of selected human tissue. Common human tissues utilized include bone, cartilage, ossicles, corneas, heart valves, and skin. Tissue and grafts taken from a living or non-living donor for transplantation to an unrelated recipient are called allografts. Allografts are human tissues and organs, usually recovered from deceased human donors, which are preserved and stored for transplantation. The surgical use of transplanted tissues has increased remarkably over the past decade.
Although innovative a few years ago, the transplanting of human tissue to repair a knee, elbow, or hip is commonplace. One thousand times a day across the country, people have their injuries remedied through the implantation of tissue which comes from a deceased donor. Proponents of tissue banking argue that the use of human tissue reduces the threat of tissue rejection and that components processed for transplant are readily absorbed into the human body.
Tags: tissue, tissue banking