History of Allograft Resources
The Allograft Resources Tissue Bank was developed to fill a particular need within a single hospital in the San Antonio area. The tissue industry, as a whole, had persistently struggled with fulfilling the need for cryopreserved1 heart valves for the pediatric Cardiothoracic program at University Hospital.
The region serviced by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio medical school and the University Hospital has a high population of pediatric patients with cardiothoracic anomalies2 which require pediatric heart surgery. On many occasions patients were forced to wait for procedure due to a lack of tissue and sometimes opted for inferior treatment modalities3. From this need the Allograft Resource Program was developed and has continued to grow rapidly.
This growth is attributed to a higher level of service being provided to donor families and hospital facilities alike. In the past, many families were precluded from donating because of medical history or age of the potential donors. Some entities process and distribute their own tissue, and due to the lack a sufficient distribution outlets, distributors are reluctant to engage in sharing with competitors even though a competitor may have a need for tissue that is not being recovered.
The Allograft Resource Program has continued to add services as demanded by the local community and now offers a vast array of services to include compliance assistance, recovery services, bereavement support, and location and delivery of difficult to find grafts for implantation.
1 — Cryopreserved = (cyro_pres_er_va_tion) preservation by subjection to extremely low temperatures / http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html
2 — Anomaly = (anom_a_ly) a deviation from normal especially of the bodily part / http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html
3 — Modality = (mo dal I ty) a usually physical therapeutic agency