Bone Bank inaugurated at KMC Hospital in Manipal

A bone bank was inaugurated at the Kasturba Medical College and Hospital in Manipal

Ranjan R Pai, Chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group inaugurated a bone bank at Kasturba Medical College and Hospital in Manipal on September 17. Opening the bank was an initiative of the Manipal Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion, Harinarayan Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Manipal Foundation said that setting up of the bone bank in Manipal is the first of its kind in Manipal network hospitals.

M. D. Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) said that the bone bank allografts are cheaper and superior than the commercially available alternatives, despite the cost incurred in processing/radiation-sterilisation of the donor bone (to be borne by the recipient), a release from the hospital said.

Monappa Naik Aroor, Professor of Orthopaedics at the hospital and convener of the bone bank said that, massive bone grafts are needed in managing large bone defects in tumour resection (especially in younger children where autografts is not a valid choice to reconstruct larger defects), gap non-union of fractured bones and defect management of joint reconstruction/revision surgeries. Allografts constitute the tissue transplants within the members of the same species which are genetically non-identical (human to human). The source of bone is from potential living or deceased healthy voluntary donors.

Bone parts resected during joint replacement (arthroplasty) procedures and in selected amputations are the main sources of living donors (otherwise these are discarded as bio-waste). All these donated bones undergo a series of processing (to make it free from blood, fat, contamination and micro-organisms) to make it safe and infection free for usage (upcycling). The bone bank consists of wet and dry processing areas apart from the documentation/receiving area, deep freezer room and storage/distribution area.

After processing of the donor bone (dissection, cutting, washing, pasteurisation, freeze-drying, packing, labelling and sealing), ensuring the high quality and safety (moisture-free and low bioburden), the material should be end sterilised with Gamma radiation. With all these procedures (procuring, curing, storing, distributing), the bone bank will be the source for upcycled bone tissue as allografts (freeze-dried Gamma irradiated end product) for the needful massive grafts in Orthopaedic reconstructive surgeries. Bone bank allografts will solve the issues of size/amount of graft needed.

Avinash Shetty, Medical Superintendent of the hospital said that once the licensing for this project is completed, the products will be available for the therapeutic purpose.