title: Incidence of bacterial contamination and predisposing factors during bone and tendon allograft procurement.
abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze factors contributing to bacteriological contamination of bone and tendon allograft. Between 2008 and 2011, 2,778 bone and tendon allografts obtained from 196 organ and tissue donors or tissue donors only were retrospectively analysed. Several variables were taken into account: donor type (organ and tissue donors vs. tissue donor), cause of death, time interval between death and tissue procurement, duration of the procurement procedure, type of allografts, number of team members, number of trainees members, associated surgical procedures, positivity to haemoculture, type of procurement. The overall incidence of graft contamination was 23 %. The cause of death, the procurement time, the duration of procurement, the associated surgical procedures were not associated with increased risk of contamination. Significant effect on contamination incidence was observed for the number of staff members performing the procurement. In addition, our study substantiated significantly higher contamination rate among bone allografts than from tendon grafts. According to these observations, in order to minimize the contamination rate of procured musculoskeletal allografts, we recommend appropriate donor selection, use of standard sterile techniques, immediate packaging of each allograft to reduce graft exposure. Allograft procurement should be performed by a small surgical team.
authors.affiliation: Musculoskeletal Tissue Bank of Milan, G. Pini Orthopaedic Institute , Milan, Italy, clara.terzaghi@libero.it.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Terzaghi
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Legnani
authors.forename: Davide Paolo
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Bernasconi
authors.forename: Maristella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faré
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D064591:Allografts; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013710:Tendons / Q000382:microbiology*; D014019:Tissue Donors; D055815:Young Adult