Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing an Allograft vs. Autograft

An allograft is bone or soft tissue that is transplanted from one person to another. Transplanted bone, tendons, cartilage and skin are used extensively in orthopedics, neurosurgery, as well as plastic, general and dental surgeries. In this country, an estimated 900,000 allografts are transplanted each year.

An autograft is bone or soft tissue that is transplanted from the same person to the same host. Autografts create a second surgery site which doubles the chance of surgical complications and pain during recovery. In most cases, autografts weaken the area which the recovery was performed.

  • Athletes who need reconstruction of their knees usually choose allografts vs. autografts.
  • Individuals suffering from back pain often choose allografts for long-term relief instead of autografts removed from a patient’s hip (causing twice the possibility of surgical complications and pain for patients in the hip region).
  • Cancer patients receive allografts to fill bone voids following tumor surgery.
  • Burn victims requiring skin grafting choose allografts.

Allografts can be precision made in high tech environments producing accuracy levels far beyond the capabilities of operating rooms. These are just some of the ways allografts are used every day vs. autografts to dramatically improve people’s quality of life.

Where Do Allografts Come From?

All allografts are obtained by bone and tissue donors. Donors are people who have died in accidents or from sudden illnesses such as heart attack or stroke. Often the gift of bone and soft tissues from a single donor can help many, many recipients.

Every donor is screened extensively before donation. All donated tissue is rigorously tested using the most technologically advanced methods to ensure safety and sterility before release for distribution. All tissues that do not pass these rigorous tests are rejected.

Potential donors with histories of any condition that can affect the quality and long-term performance of the bone and/or tissue are also excluded.

How is the Bone Recovered?

All TissueNet-supplied bone and soft tissue are recovered from donors in a surgical environment in or similar to an operating room setting by specially trained technicians. TissueNet employs state-of-the-art recovery and processing techniques to maintain the aseptic condition (without contamination) of every tissue.

Donors are treated with dignity throughout the recovery process and remains are returned to families for final funeral arrangements.

Allograft Safety

With the recent development of T106™, TissueNet’s proprietary sterilization system, the odds just got even better!

What are the odds?

  • Developing a mental disorder – 1 in 4 (annual)
  • Dying of heart disease – 1 in 6 (lifetime)
  • Having your car stolen – 1 in 159 (annual)
  • Fatal motorcycle accident – 1 in 1,000 (annual)
  • Fatal running accident – 1 in 10,000 (annual)
  • Dying from falling out of bed – 1 in 513,142 (annual)
  • Freezing to death – 1 in 780,938 (annual)
  • Contracting a virus from an UltraGraft™ – less than 1 in 1,000,000 (annual)

Who is TissueNet?

TissueNet is the largest privately held processor of bone and soft tissue grafts in the United States. This enables us to invest large amounts of time and money on research and development. One ground-breaking result is a Next Generation in Allografts called UltraGraft™ — the only non-irradiated and terminally sterilized allograft tissue on the market today.

"This technological breakthrough provides patients with absolute assurance of the cleanest, safest and highest quality tissue on the market today."

—Alan J. Novotny, Founder & CEO