Relative risk of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with cadaveric dura transplantation in Japan.

By May 1996, 43 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with cadaveric dura transplantation were reported during a nationwide survey in Japan. With the assumption that the number of patients receiving the transplantation each year was 20,000, the incidence of the disease among patients receiving cadaveric dura grafts was compared with the annual incidence in the general population. Cumulative incidence was between 0.017 and 0.048%. The estimated relative maximum risk was 104.9, and even the minimum relative risk was as high as 29.2.