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Focus on Quality:
Donor Age Criteria: Are Allografts From Younger Donors Better?
Allograft tissues have been used for clinical sports medicine applications since the mid-1980s. Human allograft tissue offers several distinct advantages over autografts including shorter operative times, reduced surgical morbidity, decreased post-operative pain and improved cosmesis. As a result, musculoskeletal allograft tissue is increasingly being used for orthopedic applications. Allografts for sports medicine applications are recovered from a variety of sites and include mainly the patellar tendon, the semitendinosus tendon, the tibialis tendon (both anterior and posterior), the peroneus longus tendon, the gracilis tendon and the Achilles tendon.
Results of recent studies evaluating the effect of donor age on the mechanical properties of soft tissue bio-implants suggest that the use of tissue from donors up to age 70 is justified for ACL and PCL reconstruction. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that clinical studies have found no significant correlation between donor age and the mechanical properties of allograft tissue.
The American Journal of Sports Medicine published a study on the effect of donor age on the mechanical properties of patellar tendons, in which the authors found no significant correlation between tensile strength and donor age. Additionally, a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics concluded that the tensile strength of patellar tendons across all age ranges exceeds the clinically recommended strength required for ACL reconstruction. Another study published in the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery suggested that donor age had an insignificant effect on the stiffness of the Achilles tendon. More recently, Dr. Charles Brown of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston investigated the effects of donor age on the tensile properties of single strand and double strand tibialis tendon allografts that were subjected to Allowash XG®. No statistically significant difference was observed for ultimate load to failure, stiffness, stress or displacement at failure for single strand tibialis tendons among the three age groups studied. Both load to failure and stiffness in all three age groups indicate that single strand tibialis tendons are stronger than the native ACL. Also, there was no significant effect of donor age on tissue properties.
Click here to view or download the full report: "The Effect of Donor Age and Terminal Sterilization on the Biomechanical Properties of Human Tendon Allografts."
Donor Age Criteria for LifeNet Health Tissue
Bone and soft tissue donors must:
• Be 12 to 70 years old
• Weigh a minimum of 88 lbs (40 kg)
Cardiovascular tissue donors must:
• Be 36 weeks gestation to 55 years old • Weigh a minimum of 8 lbs (3.64 kg)
• Saphenous vein donors must be male, 17– 50 years old
All donor tissue above must:
• Be recovered within 24 hours of death (determined by appropriate body cooling requirements)
For more information on the processing age range for specific allograft bio-implant types, click here to view LifeNet Health’s Donor Age Criteria.
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