P61 Producing a Safer Bone Allograft by Procesing Single Femoral Heads

Abstract

Introduction The majority of bone allografts in the UK are supplied as fresh‐frozen single femoral heads which still contain the donor's bone marrow and this donor bone marrow may actually be included in the grafting procedure. Due to the possibility of disease transmission, removal of marrow components from banked allograft femoral heads is desirable. In this study we have set out to develop a protocol to remove donor bone marrow from single femoral heads in a time period and in a manner such that it could be easily implemented into routine production.Methods A 12‐step protocol has been devised which involved sonication, rinsing, three centrifugation steps, a hydrogen peroxide wash, an ethanol wash and a total of five warm water washes at 56–59oC. At the end of the procedure, the bone was morcellised into a fine powder and used for residual values. The amount of soluble protein, double stranded DNA and haemoglobin removed at each step was measured using commercial kits and the percentage removed at each step was evaluated.Results The total time for the 12‐step protocol was less than 4 h. The protocol resulted in the removal of in excess of 99% of soluble protein, DNA and haemoglobin. Soluble protein and DNA exhibited similar patterns of removal, with the highest proportion of removal occurring at the first centrifugation step whereas haemoglobin removal was highest in the initial sonication wash.Conclusion The data presented here indicate that single femoral heads can be individually processed in a four‐hour time period with the resultant removal of the vast majority of bone marrow components. The cleaning protocol may be useful in reducing the possibility of disease transmission in allograft bone.