Knowledge on Bone Banking among Participants in an Orthopaedic Conference: A Preliminary Survey

Despite increasing use of bone graft in Malaysia, there was still lack of data to quantify knowledge level on bone banking among orthopaedic community who are involved in transplantation related work. Therefore, a survey on awareness in tissue banking specifically bone banking, usage and choice of bone grafts was conducted. From 80 respondents, 82.5% were aware about tissue banking however only 12.5% knew of the existence of tissue banks in Malaysia. Femoral head was the bone allograft most often used as a substitute to autograft. Only 34.8% respondents preferred irradiated bone grafts whilst 46.9% preferred nonirradiated, indicating the need to educate the importance of radiation for sterilising tissues. Exhibition was the most preferred medium for awareness programme to disseminate information about bone banking in the orthopaedic community. The professional awareness is necessary to increase the knowledge on the use of bone graft, hence to increase bone transplantation for musculoskeletal surgeries in the country.