Description
It is estimated that each year well over a million allografts are implanted in the United States. These grafts are utilized in almost all surgical disciplines including: orthopedic, neurology, gynecology, cardiac surgery, burn care and many others. Over time physicians have realized the benefits of using allograft tissues over alternatives such as auto grafts and synthetics. This realization has tremendously increased the demand for allograft tissues. We have taken some of the questions most commonly asked by patients and answered them for you. We hope the following information is helpful when making a decision about undergoing an allograft transplant procedure. An allograft is tissue (i.e. bone, ligaments, heart valves) recovered from a human donor for transplantation into another person. Allografts have been successfully used in various medical procedures for more than 150 years. Allograft bone is commonly used in orthopedic, spinal and oral surgeries. Burn patients, cardiac patients, urologic patients, and oncology patients have also benefited from allograft transplantation (i.e. skin, tendons, heart valves, veins and corneal (eye) allografts).