A model for the organization of a regional bank for musculoskeletal tissues in Italy.

The national and local need for human tissues to be used in transplants is a high one, and constantly growing. Human, scientific and financial resources involved in guaranteeing safe and high-quality tissues as defined by the national guidelines for musculoskeletal tissue banks are considerable. For this reason we need to find adequate solutions to the problem of guaranteeing sufficient availability of tissues with the lowest cost possible for supply. The Piedmont Region Musculoskeletal Tissue Bank, which is located in an Azienda Ospedaliera, has been organized to guarantee the quality of its tissues via biological validation and scientific-clinical coordination; it makes use of the collaboration of removal centers that send tissues taken from the central bank for certification and identifies several centers for preservation; it collaborates with a bank of national importance for tissue processing. The publication of regulations and tariffs based on cost analysis improves the procedures.