WHERE DOES THE BONE GRAFT COME FROM?
Bone taken from your own body is called autograft. Bone graft taken from someone else is called allograft. Allograft is usually removed from organ donors and placed in bone banks. The bone bank follows procedures intended to sterilize the bone graft and performs tests on the bone for diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS (just like a blood bank). The bone bank then sells the allograft to the hospital that performs your surgery. An allograft can come from many types of bones in many different forms, but because it is not taken from the patient, it does not contain any living cells and has fewer chemicals to stimulate growth of new bone. The disadvantage of an allograft is that it does not always heal as well or as quickly as an autograft. However, a bone-growing protein can be added to the site to make up for the lack in the bone graft. The advantage is that the patient does not have to donate the bone graft, so the surgery is shorter, and there may be less postoperative pain. The allogra
