News

COVID-19 Tissue Safety Statement

14.07.2020

Hospital Innovations is committed to supplying tissue of the highest quality and safety; which given the current situation, is more important now than ever before.
Our Tissue Bank partners are complying with recent AATB and FDA screening guidelines and are taking the necessary precautions to ensure that all tissue donated is stringently risk assessed; preventing possible transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
These screening guidelines include:

- Travel to CDC ‘Warning Level 3’ areas in the last 28 days;
- Symptoms/fever;
- Exposure to a known COVID-19 patient.

Additionally, screening protocols have been further enhanced to detect the presence of SARS-COV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – and identify the potential for a donor to carry the virus based on medical history or social activities.

Our Tissue Bank partners understand that newly emerging diseases such as COVID-19 may present issues that affect tissue donation.
To combat this, strategies are implemented prior to these diseases emerging, to ensure that the procurement of tissue can still occur safely and efficiently without risk to the recipient.

It is important to note that transmission of COVID-19 through musculoskeletal tissue is unlikely; thus far there have been no cases of respiratory viruses being transmitted through human cells or tissue. The sterilisation processes used by our Tissue Bank partners are already validated to inactivate and remove a panel of RNA enveloped viruses, including COVID-19. This applies to all BioCleanse® and low-dose irradiation processed tissues.

Additional measures are also being taken to ensure safety of special tissue types that cannot be sterilised, such as fresh osteochondral (OC) tissue; with COVID-19 testing utilising a NAT Swab being administered to all fresh OC donors prior to donation.

We work with 5 of the world’s leading tissue banks, who have collectively processed and distributed more than 20 million biologic implants worldwide with an exemplary safety record.
Combined with our 12 years of experience supplying tissue to the UK; when choosing your allograft, choose safety, choose Hospital Innovations.