Infections after bone allograft surgery: a prospective study by a hospital bone bank using frozen femoral heads from living donors

In the advent of the EU guidelines 2004/23/EG and 2006/17/EG requiring extensive safety and quality steps in bone banking, the prevalence and risk of infection disease transmission from bone allograft needs to be reconsidered. Therefore, we prospectively reviewed the screening process of bone donations and the outcome of surgeries utilizing bone allografts from our internal hospital bone bank with regard to infections according to CDC criteria. One-hundred and eighty-eight allogenic bone transplantation procedures in 160 patients were followed-up for 12–64 months (mean 32 months). Bacterial infection occurred in 11 patients, the overall infection rate therefore was 6.9%. After review of the clinical and intraoperative findings, none of the infections were likely to have been caused by the bone graft. Although no follow-up serologic testing was performed, no HIV of hepatitis infections were observed. Frozen bone allografts derived from live donors and provided by hospitals can generally be considered safe. However, without new and relevant clinical expertise, continuing this technique will be impeded by the new EU guidelines and their national implementations.