Limitations of bone harvesting from organ donors in Poland

The demand for organ transplantations greatly exceeds the number of organ donors (OD) and it is likely that this discrepancy will continue. There is a continuously growing demand for biostatic allogenic bone transplantation mostly for orthopedic reconstructions. The bone material is predominantly harvested during postmortem examinations in forensic medicine departments. The collected amounts are not enough so the material need to be acquired from other sources. Bone collecting from OD seems to be the optimal solution. Between January 2000 and December 2005, 1,883 out of 2,601 organ donors fulfilled the criteria for bone donation, but only 42 bone harvesting (BH) were performed being only 2.22% of all suitable cases. The main reasons for so few bone procurements were: lack of acceptance of bone procurement by relevant part of donors' families, insufficient cooperation between tissue banks and transplantation teams, lack of equipment for BH, and no experience in bone procurement.