The aim of the cardiovascular tissue bank is to store homografts - human tissue transplants of heart valves and blood vessels. (1) Transplantation of tissues or organs is seriously limited by the problems of lack of donors and immune rejection at the donor-recipient level. The development of tissue engineering enables tissue transplantation as well as cells from the patient’s own tissue. Therapy or treatment with tissue transplantation has been used for more than 50 years; however, one of its disadvantages is the possibility of disease transmission from the donor to the recipient. This risk is greatly reduced by excluding donors who are at risk of transmitting infection and by testing donors for transmissible infectious diseases. (2) Aseptic surgical technique in a quality environment, when extracting tissue from a donor, processing and storing tissue, and during implantation, is of key importance for preventing bacterial and fungal contamination. (3) Over the past two decades, the risk of disease transmission associated with tissue transplantation has been greatly reduced by the application of standards that are established by the professional organizations Association of Tissue Banks, European Association of Tissue Banks (EATB), and American Association of Eye Banks. (4) In the Republic of Croatia, the cardiovascular tissue bank took over the process technology of the largest European cardiovascular tissue bank, the European Homograft Bank from Brussels.
Copyright statement: Croatian Cardiac Society
Copyright: 2023, Croatian Cardiac Society
Date received: 01 October 2023
Date accepted: 07 October 2023
Publication date: October 2023
Publication date: October 2023
Volume: 19
Issue: 1-2
Page: 46
Publisher ID: CC 2024 19_1-2_46
DOI: 10.15836/ccar2024.46