Bone bank service in Odense, Denmark. Audit of the first ten years with bone banking at the Department of Orthopaedics, Odense University Hospital.

There has been an increase in the demand for allograft bone in recent years. The Odense University Hospital bone bank has been in function since 1990, and this paper outlines our results during the 10 year period 1990-1999. Potential donors were screened by contemporary banking techniques which include a social history, donor serum tests for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and graft microbiology. The bones were stored at -80 degrees C. No type of secondary sterilisation was made. 423 femoral heads were approved and donated to 300 patients,1-6 heads/operation. The allografts have been used mainly to reconstruct defects at revision hip arthroplasty (34%), and for fracture surgery (24%). 7 % of all transplanted patients were reoperated because of infection. In the hip revision group the infection rate was 4 %. There were no cases of disease transmission. During the 10 year period there was a change in the clinical use of the allografts. In the first years the allografts were mainly used for spinal fusion surgery, but today the majority are used in hip revision and fracture surgery. The clinical results correspond to those reported in larger international series.