About Regional Bone Banking Services
Member
Director: Dr. Ho Wai Yip Kenneth
Medical Laboratory Technician: Ms Mavis Yiu
The Bone Bank provides bone & tendon allografts to all the hospitals in Hong Kong, both public & private.
This includes femoral heads & large segments long bones for Orthopaedic reconstructive surgeries, as well as tendon-bone allografts for ligamentous reconstruction. All the procurement, processing, storage & supply are done by us, complying strictly with the guidelines & protocols set up by the Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Banks.
Each year, we procure about 2 sets of long bones from cadavers, and 60-70 femoral heads from live donors.
Between 2002 & 2010, 331 femoral head allograft have been used in 201 operations. They were used for reconstituting bone defects, bone grafting & fusion. More than 90% of the femoral heads were used in the HKWC hospitals. Within the same period of time, 111 pieces of cadaveric allograft from the Bone Bank were also utilized in a variety of surgeries, like revision joint replacement, revision ACL reconstruction & segmental bone reconstruction after tumour resection. About 50% were used in the HKWC hospitals, while the rest were provided to other HA hospitals or private hospitals. We also perform Hospital Authority-funded research to assess the safety of skeletal tissues used for transplantation and the epidemiology of infections acquired in transplantation of banked skeletal tissues.
In recent years, there is an increasing demand of ligamentous reconstruction.
The Bone Bank has revised the protocol in 2008 to include long tendons of the ankles & toes from the cadaveric donors. This serves to provide an alternate source of tissue for ligamentous reconstruction.
Future Development
There is a high demand of cadaveric allograft in various Orthopaedic sub-specialties, especially adult joint reconstruction & sports injury. Also, with the improvement in surgical techniques, the outcome of massive allograft reconstruction become more favourable & is gaining more popular. The Bone Bank will continue to constantly review its procurement & processing protocols to suit the changing needs of musculoskeletal tissue transplant.
History of Regional Bone Banking Services
The QMH Bone Bank was set up in 1983 under the leadership of Prof. SP Chow. Initially, only femoral heads from live donors were harvested & stored in liquid nitrogen. Later, we switched to store the allograft in freezers. In 1990, the Bone Bank became the first regional Bank in Hong Kong capable of procuring cadaveric bones and became a recognized service under HA in 1995. The QMH Bone Bank is also a life member of Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Banking.
Over these years, we have been continuously improving our quality of service, especially in the direction of prevention of transmittable diseases. We have introduced routine irradiation of all cadaveric specimens for sterilization, & we maintain the service at an international level.
Past & Present Bone Bank Directors
NOW
Dr. WY Ho
2005 onwards
2005
Dr. TL Poon
1994 - 2005
1994
Professor D. Fang
1983 - 1994
1983
Left patient suffering from benign bone tumors, after resection, bone defects.
The patient is at the end of the artificial joint fracture and needs to repair the artificial joint.
After the renovation of artificial joints, the doctor re-implanted a skin to strengthen the consolidation of bone structure.
