TISSUE BANK

The Tissue Bank at the RALC is the only one of its kind in South India. Started in 2007 as a Bone bank serving the needs of the Department of Orthopaedics in the Ramaiah Hospital, it has reached the present state due to the vision of the President of the RALC, Dr D.C. Sundaresh who had forseen the increasing demand for human biological tissue in the management of patients in various surgical disciplines in the years to come.

The tissue bank is having facilities for harvesting, processing, storing human biological material or tissues in a freeze dried form, which can store these for a long period of time, sometimes even five years or more.

The main thrust is on preserving bone, large quantities of which are required in managing bony defects following surgery for bone cancers, or bone loss during trauma, or bone fusion in spinal surgery, or even during revision joint replacement surgery. The bitter pain which patients complain of from the bone graft harvesting and certain occassions when the availability is itself questionable, as in frail old patients and children, can be totally avoided.

Tendons and bone with tendons are also being stored. These find an application in sports injuries where ligaments such as Anterior cruciate can be reconstructed without having to harvest them from the same person. This minimises the morbidity of graft harvest and helps in early recovery of patients, the surgery also being performed with smaller incisions.

Large amounts of skin loss following trauma, or following burns is another concern for surgeons dealing with these. It is the banking of skin and amnion which is going to serve the needs of patients whose early skin cover and faster recovery would do wonders to the lives of the patients and their families.

Donation of these tissues is either from cadavers, or from live donors undergoing arthroplasty, due consent having been obtained from both the donors and the recepients. Further details can be obtained on contacting us.