Abstract
Microbiological contamination of retrieved tissues has become an issue of key importance and is a critical aspect of allograft safety, especially in the case of multi-tissue donations, which frequently become contaminated during retrieval and handling. We analysed contamination in 11,129 tissues with a longitudinal contamination profile for each individual tissue. Specifically, 10,035 musculoskeletal tissues and 1094 cardiovascular tissues were retrieved from a total of 763 multi-tissue donors, of whom 105 heart-beating organ donors and 658 deceased tissue donors. Of the 1955 tissues found to be contaminated after the first decontamination step, 1401 tissues (72%) were contaminated by the same species as the one(s) isolated at retrieval (Time1) and 554 (28%) by different species. Among the 113 tissues testing positive after the 2nd decontamination (Time3), 36 tissues (32%) were contaminated by the same species detected at Timel while the contaminating species differed from Time1 in 77 tissues (68%). The higher the number of contaminating species per tissue the higher the percentage of tissues in which contamination changed over time compared to Time1. The analysis revealed a 28% incidence of new species in tissues already testing positive after retrieval and of 3.5% of tissues becoming positive after admission to the tissue bank. Of these, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus accounted for over 70% of new contaminations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atique FB, Khalil MM (2014) The bacterial contamination of allogeneic bone and emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in tissue bank. Biomed Res Int 2014:430581
Barratt-Boyes BG, Roche AH (1969) A review of aortic valve homografts over a six and one-half year period. Ann Surg 170(3):483–492
Barrie D, Wilson JA, Hoffman PN, Kramer JM (1992) Bacillus cereus meningitis in two neurosurgical patients: an investigation into the source of the organism. J Infect 25(3):291–297
Deijkers RL, Bloem RM, Petit PL, Brand R, Vehmeyer SB, Veen MR (1997) Contamination of bone allografts: analysis of incidence and predisposing factors. J Bone Joint Surg Br 79(1):161–166
Domanović D, Cassini A, Bekeredjian-Ding I, Bokhorst A, Bouwknegt M, Facco G, Galea G, Grossi P, Jashari R, Jungbauer C, Marcelis J, Raluca-Siska I, Andersson-Vonrosen I, Suk JE (2017) Prioritizing of bacterial infections transmitted through substances of human origin in Europe. Transfusion 57(5):1311–1317
Fan YD, Van Hoeck B, Holovska V, Jashari R (2012) Evaluation of decontamination process of heart valve and artery tissues in European Homograft Bank (EHB): a retrospective study of 1,055 cases. Cell Tissue Bank 13(2):297–304
Gibbons MJ, Butler DL, Grood ES, Bylski-Austrow DI, Levy MS, Noyes FR (1991) Effects of gamma irradiation on the initial mechanical and material properties of goat bone-patellar tendon-bone allografts. J Orthop Res 9(2):209–218
Heng WL, Albrecht H, Chiappini P, Lim YP, Manning L (2013) International heart valve bank survey: a review of processing practices and activity outcomes. J Transpl 2013:163150
Ibrahim T, Stafford H, Esler CN, Power RA (2004) Cadaveric allograft microbiology. Int Orthop 28(5):315–318
Ireland L, Spelman D (2005) Bacterial contamination of tissue allografts-experiences of the donor tissue bank of Victoria. Cell Tissue Bank 6(3):181–189
Jackson DW, Windler GE, Simon TM (1990) Intraarticular reaction associated with the use of freeze-dried, ethylene oxide-sterilized bone-patella tendon-bone allografts in the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament. Am J Sports Med 18(1):1–10
Jashari R, Tabaku M, Van Hoeck B, Cochéz C, Callant M, Vanderkelen A (2007) Decontamination of heart valve and arterial allografts in the European Homograft Bank (EHB): comparison of two different antibiotic cocktails in low temperature conditions. Cell Tissue Bank 8(4):247–255
Koneman EW, Davis MA (1974) Postmortem bacteriology. 3. Clinical significance of microorganisms recovered at autopsy. Am J Clin Pathol 61(1):28–40
Martinez OV, Malinin TI, Valla PH, Flores A (1985) Postmortem bacteriology of cadaver tissue donors: an evaluation of blood cultures as an index of tissue sterility. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 3(3):193–200
Mermel LA, Josephson SL, Giorgio C (1994) A pseudoepidemic involving bone allografts. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 15(12):757–758
Paolin A, Trojan D, Petit P, Coato P, Rigoli R (2017a) Evaluation of allograft contamination and decontamination at the Treviso Tissue Bank Foundation: a retrospective study of 11,129 tissues. PLoS ONE 12(3):e0173154
Paolin A, Romualdi C, Romagnoli L, Trojan D (2017b) Analysis of potential factors affecting allografts contamination at retrieval. Cell Tissue Bank 18(4):539–545
Tabaku M, Jashari R, Carton HF, Du Verger A, Van Hoeck B, Vanderkelen A (2004) Processing of cardiovascular allografts: effectiveness of European Homograft Bank (EHB) antimicrobial treatment (cool decontamination protocol with low concentration of antibiotics). Cell Tissue Bank 5(4):261–266
Van Kats JP, van Tricht C, van Dijk A, van der Schans M, van den Bogaerdt A, Petit PL, Bogers AJ (2010) Microbiological examination of donated human cardiac tissue in heart valve banking. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 37(1):163–169
Veen MR, Bloem RM, Petit PL (1994) Sensitivity and negative predictive value of swab cultures in musculoskeletal allograft procurement. Clin Orthop Relat Res 300:259–263
Vehmeyer S, Wolkenfelt J, Deijkers R, Petit P, Brand R, Bloem R (2002) Bacterial contamination in postmortem bone donors. Acta Orthop Scand 73(6):678–683
Whyte W, Hodgson R, Tinkler J (1982) The importance of airborne bacterial contamination of wounds. J Hosp Infect 3(2):123–135
Wilson M (2005) Microbial inhabitants of humans. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human and animal rights
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The nature of the survey exempted it from ethics committee review: i.e. the analysis was performed on tissue rinsing solutions collected after the two decontamination steps.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Paolin, A., Montagner, G., Petit, P. et al. Contamination profile in allografts retrieved from multitissue donors: longitudinal analysis. Cell Tissue Bank 19, 809–817 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-018-9739-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-018-9739-5