Is it safe to accept bone from someone else for a spinal fusion? And why can't a family member donate his or her bone like blood donations?

Posted November 19th, 2009 by Matt

Spine General (involves multiple spine areas)

Spinal fusion is aided by the placement of bone chips placed alongside and between the vertebral bodies. These bone graft materials help jump start the healing process and foster a successful fusion.

There are two basic bone grafts: autografts (harvested from the patient) or allografts (obtained from a donor bank). Donor bank bone comes from cadavers (bone preserved after death for use in studies or surgery). Live donors (other than the patient himself) are not used because of what's referred to as donor site morbidity and the risk of tissue rejection. Patients donating bone would be at risk for post-collection infection, pain, and disability at the donor site.

Autografts are really still considered the gold standard (the best choice). Using your own bone means there won't be any issues with tissue rejection. And since it's live bone when it's harvested, it helps stimulate new bone growth at the surgical site much faster and more efficiently than allografts.

The major disadvantage of autografts is persistent and sometimes disabling pain at the donor site. As your own donor, you may suffer more from the donor location than from the main area of surgery. A minor inconvenience is the extra time during surgery to collect the bone from some other site. Autografts for spinal fusion usually come from bone removed from the spine (e.g., laminae or spinous process) or from the crest of the pelvic bone.

Allografts on the other hand create no donor site problems, but fusion takes longer and there is a risk of transferring an infection from the donor tissue to the recipient. That's why donors are screened very carefully before being accepted and the donor tissue is sterilized with gamma irradiation techniques. Advantages of allografts include shorter surgical time, availability of preformed shapes and sizes of donor tissue, and as mentioned, there's no pain from bone collection.

Mark M. Mikhael, MD, et al. Postoperative Culture Positive Surgical Site Infections After the Use of Irradiated Allograft, Nonirradiated Allograft, or Autograft for Spinal Fusion. In Spine. October 15, 2009. Vol. 34. No. 22. Pp. 2466-2468.

Post to Del.icio.us

Email to a Friend

Comments

ucvhost is a leading web

On February 27th, 2010 keith12 says:

ucvhost is a leading web site hosting service provider that is known to provide reliable and affordable hosting packages to customers. Cheap Hosting company believes in providing absolute and superior control to the customer as well as complete security and flexibility through its many packages. Forex Vps Moreover, the company provides technical support as well as customer service 24x7, in order to enable its customer. price. windows vps
One good linux hosting option is the package cheap vps offered by ucvhost , which not only provides the best in terms of hosting packages but also believes in truly being there for the customer, 24x7. Moreover windows hosting , they offer unlimited bandwidth as well as nearly 1GB storage along with database maintenance, email facility along with storage, availability of sub domain and many other important features for a very low . thanks ucvhost

replica watches

On June 12th, 2010 cheap watches says:

replica watches

On June 12th, 2010 cheap watches says:

. Discount Coach Bags a company made up of proficient engineers. is an innovator in the aviator watch field and has a Wedding Apparel very long and highly publicized association Replica Cigarette with the sky. Yet. the brand has also had a long and productive relationship Replica Shoes with water Replica Cartier. which is probably less known.%ASince the early 1960s. the soccer jersey supplier company has been Men PRADA t shirts producing its first diver's chronographs. known as the Aquatimers. Among them is the "Ocean". an anti-magnetic timepiece made of titanium. designer evening dresses water-resistantReplica Rolex up Fake Watches to 2.000 meters. which was designed Cheap Chanel Wallets for Cheap Pulsar Watches the West German navy by the designer Ferdinand Porsche (best known for designing the original Volkswagen Beetle and for his contributions to advanced German tank designs: Tiger I. Tiger II and the Elefant.). Another item in this collection is the 'Deep One' featuring a combined mechanical depth measure. and the 'Aquatimer' from the GST Sporting equipment family of timekeepers. with their Cheap Omega Watches rotating bezels. and double protection providing water-resistance up to 1243 miles.%A%AThe new Aquatimer collection is very important as it gets IWC a special status. A glance at these Cheap Nike Air Max Wright great masterworks just confirms this fact. Today's Aquatimer line includes the Aquatimer Replica Coach Handbags Automatic 2000. a new Zodiac Rplica Watches professional titanium diver's watch. the Aquatimer Automatic. a little bit Men GUCCI t shirts more refined steel version. and the Limited Edition 'Cousteau Divers' series. the Aquatimer Chrono-Automatic that has the features of the earlier models with the addition Fake Cheap Rolex Cheap Nike Air Max 360 of a chronograph. and the most noteworthy model of Cheap Adidas Adicolor Series the entire line. the Aquatimer Minute Memory.%A%AAquatimer Minute discount golf clubs Memory %ALet us concentrate on cheap davidoff cigarettes this particular watch Gucci Men Ceintures featuring all the specifications and performances Cheap Hermes Wallets Triumph Motorcycles Watches for sale of the whole new line. A possessor of Cheap replica FENDI shoes leather Cheap Iphone smartphone numerous patents. the Aquatimer Cheap Adidas Superstar Sneaker Minute Memory is made up Cheap Nike Air Max 90 of a chronograph with automatic winding. and an additional 12-hour counter. Captivatingly. the Minute Memory device is detached and independent of the Michele Rplica Watches chronograph. This absolutely unique replica Leather shoes additional function is a hand that measures minutes independently and can be switched off or on Replica Air force one Shoes under Fake Watches the water using Cheap Hermes Wallets a slide.%A%ADesigned in association with professional frogmen Replica Watches. this special Mobile Telephone diver's watch enables the wearer to Cheap Nike Shox Turbo measure a second period of time separately. which may be vital in calculating resurfacing time or decompression time. When the mechanism is turned on Replica Omega. the hidden minute hand stops while the other hand goes on. Gucci Handbags The intermediate time is hence Cheap Nike Air Max BW shown by the Replica Louis Vuitton Handbags difference between these two cheap bed sheets hands. When turned off. the Minute Memory Mobile Telephone hand returns to its position replica Chanel shoes leather under the Cheap Nike Air Max 93 regular hand. This was a very complex system Cheap Nike Air Max Hybrid to develop. particularly because the Minute Memory device is independent and has its own mechanism for coming back to soccer jersey wholesale zero. Moreover. it is optimally positioned Cheap Nike Shox Turbo close to the movement while the hands do not depend on it.%AReplica IWC Watches%9%AReasonably priced replica IWC watches are premium Cheap Leather shoes copies of genuine Replica LOUIS VUITTON t shirts Swiss made watches. Made by the Replica Watches best Japanese watchmakers. our Cheap Rotary Watches tiptop replicas are all but impossible to distinguish from the real IWC watches that cost a lot of money. Choose an IWC replica watch as though created specially for you.%A%9%9%9%9%9%9%A

sdf

On July 2nd, 2010 meixiang says:

singing musicuggs grey tall, uggs grey tall
mbt m walk black, mbt m walk black
limited edition ghd iv black styler, limited edition ghd iv black styler
supra skytop 2 red black, supra skytop 2 red black
uggs nightfall boots, uggs nightfall boots
mbt walking, mbt walking

UGG Boots on sale

On July 8th, 2010 fang says:

dsf

On July 8th, 2010 meixiang says:

singing musicugg classic tall grey is very popular as stylish and comfortable shoes to all type of ages.

For classic and quality silver jewelry,many people choose cheap air max.

us mbt shoes is the hot-selling in the intelnet.

You should own France World Cup and join in the fashion.

In our store you can buy best quality nike air max cheap with a great discounts.

Official site of Omega Watches. Manufacturer of prestige Swiss watches since 1848.

uggs on sale

On July 14th, 2010 uggs on sale says:

Cheap Spyder Jacket

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100awf
All series of Cheap Spyder Jacket is Selling Crazy on Spyder Jacket store, if you love skiing or outdoor activities, maybe Spyder Ski Jacket and Spyder Insulated will give you surprise, if you are a women, we also offer some choice for you when you are doing exercise, like Womens Spyder Ski Jacket and Womens Spyder Suit, if you have a naughty child at home, maybe Spyder Kids Jacket will help you take care of him, Spyder Leader and Spyder Down are also good, Spyder Vest is fit for any season. Just click Spyder Jacket Sale, you can owning one for yourself.

Supra Shoes

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100awf

Good post! Welcome to our Supra Shoes store. We own Supra Shoes UK, Supra Trainers. Here you can buy Supra Vaider, Supra Muska Skytop, Supra Society. The Supra Tk Society are also good. Supra Indy, Supra Strapped and Supra Suprano also win lots of customers.

Supra Sneakers

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100awf
Oh my god! They are Various Supra Sneakers on Sale at discounted price in our superstore! Supra Sneakers include Supra Strapped, Supra Cruizer, Supra Society, Supra Vaider, Supra Trinity, Supra Suprano Hi, Supra Thunder, Supra Skytop Shoes, Supra Skytop 2 and Supra Indy. Recently, Supra Shoes become more and more popular. And you could contact us to buy Cheap Supra Shoes.

Cheap Spyder Jackets

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100awf
Welcome to Cheap Spyder Jackets which has Spyder Ski Jackets, Spyder Ski Pants, Women Spyder Ski Jackets, Women Spyder Ski Pants, Women Spyder Ski Suit, Kids Spyder Ski Jackets and Spyder Gloves.

Clearance sale for Supra Shoes, high quality Supra Skytop Shoes and Supra Society Shoes Men are sold 40% off, the discount of Supra Vaider Shoes and Supra Society Shoes Women is 37%-45%, but Supra Suprano Shoes are at surprise price with 50% cutting down. maybe you will love Supra Cruizer Trainers or Supra Strapped Shoes.

Moncler Outlet

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100aye
Good article! Welcome to Official Moncler Outlet! We provide Moncler Jackets, Moncler Coats, including Moncler Men Hooded Jacket, Moncler Men Down Short Jacket, Moncler Women Down Short Jacket, Moncler Scarf, Moncler Bags, Moncler Men Long Down Jackets, Moncler Mens Vest, Moncler Hooded Jackets Women, Moncler Women Long Down Jacket, Moncler Women Vest, Moncler Trench Coat, Moncler Kids Jackets.?

Blow out! Cheap North Face are on sale now in our North Face Canada outlet. We have series of the products of The North Face, like the Women's North Face Denali Jacket, the Men's North Face Denali Jacket, the Women's North Face Jacket, the Kids's North Face Jacket, the Men's North Face Jacket, the Men's North Face Down Jacket, the Men's North Face Down Vest, the North Face Backpack, and the North Face Gloves. Have fun shopping!

Moncler

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100aye
Good article Moncler has 50-year Milestones, Ramillon and Vincent bought a Moncler Coat factory in 1952. Moncler Jacket for the production of outdoor hiking supplies. Cheap Moncler Outlet Products include Men Moncler Vest, Women Moncler Vest, Moncler Bag, Moncler Boots, Moncler Kid Jacket, Women Moncler Long Jacket, Women Moncler Hooded Jacket, Women Moncler Down Jacket, Men Moncler Hooded Jacket, Men Moncler Down Jacket. In 2000, Moncler Jacket as the cold season, even when the skiing elegant occasions recognized the essential single product.

Good Comments! The North Face hot sell Cheap North Face Jackets in the North Face Outlet. We offer kids North Face Jacket, Womens North Face Denali hoodie, Womens North Face Denali Jacket, Mens North Face Jacket, Mens North Face Denali Jacket, Mens North Face Denali Hoodie, Mens North Face Down Jacket, Mens North Face Down Vest, and Womens North Face Jacket. In addition, North Face Backpack, North Face Sweeper Backpack, North Face Recon Backpack, North Face Gloves also hot sale in 2010.

New Ghd Rare Styler

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

100ajf
said Yes Ghd Hair Australia Socrates I Ghd Hair Straighteners think your Ghd Straighteners advice is Ghd Hair Styler very good Ghd Australia the past Buy Ghd Hair Australia I do Cheap Ghd Hair Australia not like GHD Green Envy borrowing money Buy GHD Green Envy because we GHD Purple Indulgence know that when GHD Red Lust I borrowed Ghd IV Dark Styler money to Ghd Precious Styler complete Buy Ghd Pink I will not Buy Ghd Pink pay people Ghd Pure White Styler but now Ghd Pure Blue in order Ghd Purple Styler to obtain Ghd Gold Styler the necessary Ghd IV Dark Styler funds to Ghd Benefit Styler Ghd Kiss Styler start working Ghd Salon together I Ghd Rare think I Ghd IV Mini Styler could do New Ghd Rare Styler was.

At 90, cellist Pablo Casals Cheap Ugg Boots would start his day by playing Bach. As Discount Ugg Boots the music flowed through his Ugg Boots fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy Ugg Australia would reappear in his eyes. Music, for Ugg Classic Cardy Casals, was an elixir that made life a never ending adventure. As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

Louis Vuitton Epi Leather

On July 18th, 2010 bugang says:

The terrific responsibility about Louis Vuitton Handbags is the symbol of Discount Louis Vuitton Handbags versatility to the Louis Vuitton Beach line-with a LV purse Louis Vuitton Cruis credit every design, material, color, Louis Vuitton Damier Canvas and a bag for every trigger. Louis Vuitton Epi Leather is by abysmal the Louis Vuitton Mahina finest close purse brand Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas of our time, Louis Vuitton Monogram Denim and one of the Louis Vuitton Monogram Miroir incomparably perceptible brands Louis Vuitton Monogram Perfo ascendancy the system.

ugg boots on sale

On July 19th, 2010 shely77 says:

It's a interesting news,i like it.Additionally,wellcome to my website oboots.There are so many cheap ugg boots such as:

ugg UK|uggs on sale|cheap ugg boots|ugg classic boots|