Implant patients need support

September 5, 2006
Reno Gazette-Journal
Editorial

Widespread acknowledgment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's public health alert urging additional tests for people who've received body parts from donated cadavers will add weight to physicians' already heavy baggage. It is important, however, that patients heed the FDA's warning to press their doctors for more information regarding their tissue procedures and that doctors contact patients who may have received tissues from problem suppliers.

It is hoped that doctors and their staffs will make it easy for patients to follow up on this aspect of their health care. It is also a signal that the industry that supplies tissues for implants needs tighter regulation.

The alert issued in August involves a small subset of the tissues industry. The horror behind the warning for recent recipients (within six months) to undergo additional AIDS, hepatitis and syphilis testing comes from unscrupulous individuals who aim to hit pay dirt by misusing a system that could ease pain and improve health for many Americans.

This case hasn't attracted the same concern as one early this year in which funeral home cadavers on the East Coast were plundered for as many as 20,000 untested and potentially risky body parts. Still, it could be serious. One of the firms shut down last month operated in Las Vegas from 2004-05.

The health of transplant recipients is protected by noting donors' histories of cancer, drug use or infectious diseases and by matching the histories to death certificates. Failing to test tissues in the manufacturing process is bad enough. It is inexcusable to neglect records that prove tissues are disease-free and are eligible to be used in transplants.

Closing problem suppliers, tracking tissues and tightening regulations must ease the possible disquiet among people who received tissue to repair teeth and eyes, to treat spinal injuries, and to repair knees and other joints. Federal officials need to be more forthcoming by releasing information that will help identify possible problems.

To their credit, many tissue banks and purveyors recalled materials supplied by firms the FDA closed. Local physicians can further aid patients by helping to track the source of tissues and by administering the indicated tests.

Closing problem suppliers, tracking tissues and tightening regulations must ease the possible disquiet among people who received tissue to repair teeth and eyes, to treat spinal injuries, and to repair knees and other joints. Federal officials need to be more forthcoming by releasing information that will help identify possible problems.

To their credit, many tissue banks and purveyors recalled materials supplied by firms the FDA closed. Local physicians can further aid patients by helping to track the source of tissues and by administering the indicated tests.