FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
You and your physician have agreed to use a human allograft — a bone or tissue transplant — as part of your treatment. Allografts are among the most common transplants in the medical field today. More than one million tissue transplants are performed each year.
Mary Knoll Surgical works with Maxxeus Dental; a brand of Community Tissue Services. Community Tissue Services is strongly committed to providing quality tissue grafts for transplantation.
Why choose an allograft?
Allografts can replace or repair damaged or diseased bone and soft tissues. It may also stimulate new bone growth in the affected area, particularly in dental surgery.
About our donors
Allograft tissue comes from people who have chosen to donate their tissue following their death. The tissue donor may have died from some type of sudden accident or illness, such as a heart attack. Community Tissue Services is committed to honoring the last wish of each donor while providing recipients and surgeons with a trusted source of allograft implants.
How are allograft donors screened?
Community Tissue Services uses the experience of licensed Medical Doctors to assist in the donor screening process prior to recovery. Community Tissue Services only accepts tissue donors that meet or exceed donor eligibility requirements set in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), state regulations, and Community Tissue Services in-house Medical Directors. Each donor is thoroughly evaluated using medical/ social history assessment, medical records, blood tests, culture results, physical examination and autopsy reports (when performed). This process is used to ensure the donor is suitable for donation by allowing us to recognize and exclude potential diseases or medical conditions that are unacceptable.
How are tissue donors tested?
All Community Tissue Services donors are tested for transmissible diseases using FDA licensed, approved, or cleared donor screening kits. Additionally, each individually recovered tissue undergoes pre-processing microbiological cultures to ensure pathogenic organisms are not introduced to the processing environment. All of the donor chart information is evaluated by Quality Control Specialists and a Community Tissue Services Medical Doctor prior to the processing of the tissue.
What happens after testing?
All musculoskeletal and skin grafts recovered by our tissue centers and recovery partners across the United States are processed at Community Tissue Services‘ Center for Tissue, Innovation and Research. Processing and packaging of the tissue are performed using aseptic technique and occur in class 100 clean rooms. Tissue grafts are rinsed and soaked in various solutions to minimize transmission of bacteria and viruses. Community Tissue Services utilizes a low dose terminal sterilization after final packaging of the musculoskeletal grafts.
Allograft Safety
Specific lab tests are performed for Syphilis, Hepatitis B and C, HIV and other viruses
Community Tissue Services meets or exceeds industry standards for disease testing
The probability of a musculoskeletal graft being non-sterile is 1 in 1,000,000
All donors are recovered within the United States
What happens to the bone graft after transplantation?
Once the transplanted bone graft is accepted by the body, it is slowly converted into new living bone and incorporated into the body.
Why was Community Tissue Services chosen?
At Community Tissue Services, patient safety and physician satisfaction are our priorities. Community Tissue Services has an unrivaled safety record in providing tissue allografts. Community Tissue Services is registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), and maintains all applicable state licenses. The Center for Tissue, Innovation and Research is ISO 13485:2003 certified.
Mary Knoll Surgical with Maxxeus Dental is providing this information to assist your doctor in answering the most frequently asked questions about allografts. If you would like additional information, please ask your physician or contact Community Tissue Services at questions@communitytissue.org.