Harvesting from Living Donors
In the case of living donors, tissues are retrieved during a surgical operation.
Tissues harvested from living donors may be:
- Femural heads during hip replacement surgery;
- Vascular segments during saphenectomy;
- Placental tissue during elective caesarean section.
The donor is fully informed of the nature and purpose of the harvesting procedure, the consequences and possible risks, the examinations to be carried out, the protection of his personal and medical data, as well as the therapeutic use to which the tissue will be put. When the tissues are harvested blood samples are also taken from the patient and tested for any aerobic or anaerobic bacteria and funguses to guarantee the complete safety of the tissue removed.
Surgeons and TTBF operators scrupulously follow the protocols regarding donor selection and the information and documentation required to accompany the packaging procedures. Once prepared in the operating theatre by the specialist team, the harvested tissues are placed in sterile containers, labelled with indications of the donor's details, type of tissue harvested, date and hour of retrieval.
When tissue harvesting is performed on a living donor during a scheduled operation, collection from the particular hospital and delivery to the TTBF headquarters are carried out by specialist forwarding agents. TTBF and hospital logistics staff coordinate transportation, guaranteeing that the container is in perfect condition and remains at temperatures of between +20C/+100C.