Bone bank service in Finland. Experience of bacteriologic, serologic and clinical results of the Turku Bone Bank 1972-1995

560 bones were harvested by The Turku Bone Bank between 1972-1995. It was started with massive allografts for bone tumor surgery, but today most are femoral heads for hip revision surgery. The increase in harvested bones nearly trebled from 1984-1989 to 1990-1995. Only 1 positive hepatitis C test was found. There were no hepatitis B or HIV positive donors. The incidence of discarding after screening was 24%, with positive bacterial growth (8%, usually Staphylococcus epidermidis) as the commonest reason. 2 massive grafts with negative cultures when harvesting were positive after thawing and resulted in deep infection. 369 allografts were transplanted. The infection rate of massive allografts for bone tumor surgery was 5/63 in 1973-1995, and 2/52 in 1985-1995. The infection rate for hip revision surgery was 3.4%. The clinical functional results correspond to those reported in larger international series.