Practical methods of short-term storage of homografts

Introduction A practical concept of tissue banking must evolve from clinical demand and economic feasibility. It is the purpose of this paper to present methods of tissue procurement and processing which are satisfactory for limited storage periods and are within the economic capabilities of the average community hospital. The ready availability of tissues from the recently deceased should enable surgeons to meet their requirements for all homografts which are currently practical for human transplantation. Studies based upon tissue culture of postmortem tissues indicate that viability is retained by most of these tissues for at least 24 hours after clinical death. 1 The practice of removing tissues for human transplantation within this 24 hour period has been substantiated by the clinical results obtained from the use of this material in a large number of patients. 2 It is therefore possible for the physician to use cadavers as a source of satisfactory