Storage of Bone tissue

Donated bone and tendon tissue is stored under controlled conditions. To this end, a modern freezer facility has been established at Leiden Bio Science Park, and the facility's operation is monitored round the clock.

Immediately after retrieval, donated bone tissue is placed in a ‘quarantine’ section of the storage facility, where it is stored until the donor dossier is complete and has been assessed.

Once the donated tissue has been declared safe, the tissue that is suitable for transplantation is transferred to the section of the storage facility where ‘released’ tissue is stored.

Some of the donated bone tissue is processed into ready-to-use bone chips at our facility in Nijmegen.

The bone and tendon tissues of deceased donors are sent to special facilities where they are prepared into suitable grafts for ETB-BISLIFE.

Processing involves cleaning the tissues; this entails removing any pathogens present, sawing, grinding, or cutting the tissue to the desired dimensions, and packing it, so that as much suitable donor tissue as possible is obtained that can be used in other patients.

After processing, this tissue is returned to ETB-BISLIFE’s stock until it can be delivered to the ordering hospital for an orthopaedist who wishes to use it.

Frozen tissue is packed with dry ice in special polystyrene boxes and delivered to the hospital by selected carriers. In the case of ‘fast-track orders’, this can often happen on the same day. Freeze-dried tissue can be sent to a hospital as parcel post.