Analysis of potential factors affecting microbiological cultures in tissue donors during procurement.

During the procurement of musculoskeletal grafts contamination may occur. As this might be detrimental for the acceptor, it is important to know which variables influence this occurrence and to alter procurement protocols accordingly. From 2004 to 2012 we gathered information on 6,428 allografts obtained from 291 donors. Using a multiple regression model we attempted to determine the factors that influence the contamination risk during procurement. We used the following variables: cause of death, type of hospital (i.e. university hospital vs. general hospital), previous blood vessel donation, previous organ donation, donor age, time between death and the start of the procurement, duration of the procurement, number of people attending the procurement and the number of procured grafts. The multiple regression model was only able to explain 5 % of the variability of the used outcome variable. None of the variables examined appear to have an important influence on the contamination risk.