The Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday said it has developed a way to produce its own cancellous bone chips — small pieces of spongy bone that serve as an osteoconductive scaffold and autograft extender — using recycling damaged cartilage and bones removed in bone replacement surgeries.
The hospital’s Department of Orthopedics director Chen Wei-ming (陳威明) said usually in knee replacement surgery, if the patient agrees to donate removed bone, the hospital keeps the bone frozen and evaluates if it can be used for transplant surgery.
Removed bones have to be cleaned thoroughly to reduce the risk of infection, and bones have different shapes, surgeons have to adjust the bones size and shape before implantation, Chen said, adding that bone from one donor can only be used in one patient and any remaining bone is discarded.
Through a cooperative project between the medical industry and academia that started in September 2011, the hospital’s orthopedic department participated in the development of bone tissues and successfully produced standardized cancellous bone chips in malleable form with chip sizes between 5mm and 10mm and five packaging sizes — 2.5cc, 5cc, 10cc, 20cc and 30cc — for doctors to select.
The cancellous chips are made by cleaning, crushing, packaging and disinfecting bone chips, Chen said.
The chips have been used in more than 100 patients in the past three years at the hospital, with none becoming infected, Chen added.
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