156 Comprehensive tissue banking: An Edmonton perspective

Abstract

Tissue transplantation is a life function restoring procedure and can also save lives in certain situations. The Comprehensive Tissue Centre (CTC) is a full-service tissue bank operated by Alberta Health Services in Edmonton, Alberta. Accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), licensed by Health Canada and the International Standards Organization, the CTC is one of only three full-service tissue banks in Canada, providing tissues both regionally and nationally. The CTC is responsible for the donor screening, procurement, processing, storage, quality assurance, and distribution of tissues. The current tissue allografts supplied by the CTC for transplantation are ocular, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, skin, surgical bone, and amniotic membrane. For example, in 2012, the CTC recovered 1736 tissues from 85 local cadaveric donors and 151 local living donors, including skin (169), musculoskeletal (708), cardiovascular (81), amniotic membrane (429) and ocular (349) allografts. These allografts are stored for various durations, from days to years, depending on their method of preservation. Tissues are cryopreserved or refrigerated as required by allograft type, and used for a variety of treatments and for research and educational purposes. Ongoing research and development program ensures continuous improvement the quality of tissue allografts and banking processes, enabling the medical community to better serve transplant recipients. Some of the challenges facing the CTC are increasing tissue donation rates through public education and promotion programs and linking basic research to clinical applications. The CTC takes great pride in providing safe, effective and high quality allograft tissue for transplantation through excellence in practice and leadership in research. Source of funding: None declared. Conflict of interest: None declared. tumelo.mokoena@albertahealthservices.ca , jelena.holovati@ualberta.ca