Organisation, operational aspects and clinical experience of National University of Singapore Bone Bank.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) Bone Bank was started in October 1988 and is the first such bank in Singapore. Two Revco Freezers were installed to store bones at -80 degrees C. The NUS Bone Bank Protocol follows the multi-centre protocol in USA with Massachusetts General Hospital as the Central Registry. It strictly follows the guidelines for banking of musculo-skeletal tissues set up by the American Association of Tissue Banks. Strict donor selection is practised including screening for Aids, hepatitis, syphilis and infection. It does not provide for storage of articular cartilage. Currently, procurement is obtained from living donors. Mainly femoral heads have been obtained (63 donors to date). One whole tibia, one whole fibula, one lower end of femur have also been procured. Bone allograft transplantation has been safely performed in 14 recipients--mainly spinal fusions (seven cases), Sub-talar joint fusion in children (three cases) and packing Giant Cell tumors (two cases). Other cases include revision hip surgery (one case) and augmenting of hypoplastic mandible (one case). The biggest problem faced by the NUS Bone Bank is lack of donors. There is definitely a need for bone allografts in Singapore where such transplantation is legal. Presently, there is also a demand for whole bones to bridge large bone defects resulting from tumour resection and for reconstructing post-traumatic defects. This can only be met if we can procure more whole bones especially from cadaveric donors.