Guidelines in Practice: Autologous Tissue Management

Establishing a safe environment for every perioperative patient, including those undergoing procedures that involve autologous tissue management, is essential to achieving positive outcomes. The recently updated AORN "Guideline for autologous tissue management" provides perioperative team members with evidence-based recommendations on how to safely preserve and manage autologous tissue. This article provides an overview of the guideline and discusses recommendations for selecting an interdisciplinary team to develop and maintain safe handling of autologous tissue methods; preserving cranial bone flaps; handling autologous tissue; packaging and labeling autologous tissue; transporting autologous tissue; and storage, disposal, and cleaning. It also includes a scenario describing best practices related to the safe handling of a cranial bone flap during replantation. Perioperative nurses should review the guideline in its entirety and apply the recommendations to support the safe handling of autologous tissue in the perioperative environment.