Patients may not even be aware they received cadaver tissue, which is used for everything from back surgery to dental implants. Not all doctors even tell their patients they'll be getting donated human tissue. Doctors themselves often don't know where the tissue came from.Ask your doctor for details on the companies that supplied your tissue and whether the tissue or organ bank is involved in the recalls. Also get the infectious disease tests that health officials recommend for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis.
More than 1.3 million procedures ranging from knee repairs to cornea transplants to spine surgeries are done per year and use tissue from donated cadavers. Most are supplied by reputable companies and do more good than harm, however, the tissue bank industry has not been regulated like other medical fields.
Companies voluntarily recalling tissues now are Alamo Tissue Services of San Antonio, Texas; Lost Mountain Tissue Bank of Kennesaw, Ga.; TissueNet of Orlando, Fla.; and US Tissue and Cell of Cincinnati, Ohio. Organs and body tissues are distributed nationwide, so patients anywhere could be affected. (Chron.com)
