Bone banking. A cost effective method for establishing a community hospital bone bank.

Both cost effectiveness and safety can be realized in the operation of a community bone bank by adoption of the following measures: deep freezing, rather than freeze drying; allogenic bone is collected from femoral heads excised from total hip arthroplasties; and careful donor and graft selection controls ensure an allograft free of disease which can be transmitted to the recipient. Two-year follow-up data reveal no complications or infections from implantation of 101 allografts.