Human Tissue Bank

Human Tissue Bank

The Human Tissue Bank of Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society established in 1996. Dashabandu Late Dr. F.G. Hudson Silva is the founder of the Sri Lanka Human Tissue Bank. Its provides many kinds of tissues (Body Parts) such as all kind of bones, Fascialata, Pericardium, Tendons, Eye Sclera, Amniotic Membrane. We have provided tissues to over 8000 disabled patients including the three forces and police completely free of charge. For the last 20 years Sri Lankan Surgeons such as Orthopedics, Plastic, Eye and maxillofacial grafted these tissues without any complaints. Tissues are sterilized by Co60 Gamma Radiation using a dose of 25Kgy. Those tissues are utilized at Colombo National Hospital, South and North Colombo General Hospital, Karapitiya, Matara, Kandy, Peradeniya, Negombo, Jaffna, Ampara, Vavuniya, Sri Jayawardanapura, Nawaloka, Lanka Hospital, Military and Police Hospitals. After fulfilling local requirements we have provided some excess tissues to Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, India, Pakistan, and Dubai and with good results.

Our next step is to process human skin and Heart valve in Sri Lanka. It will be a very useful for the patients who need skin and heart valve. At present plastic surgeons are using homo grafts (same patient’s skin) to cover the burned wounds. It is a painful and patients who burned more than 40% surgeon cannot take skin from above patients.

For this case surgeon needs donor skin to cover the burned wounds. Sri Lanka Human Tissue Bank has a program to process human skin at the Tissue Bank. It will very helpful for the patients and the surgeons, and Plastic Surgeons who are requesting human skin from the tissue bank.

We are also planned to process Human Heart Valve at the Sri Lanka Human Tissue Bank. At present heart valves are imported from European countries and it will cost about Rs. 4, 50,000/= (US$ 3000 to 3500). Most Sri Lankan patients are using animal heart valve because of their economic constraints. But per year thousands of usable hearts are buried or cremated in Sri Lanka. So we planned to collect these human hearts and process heart valve in Sri Lanka. It will be a very helpful for Sri Lankan heart patients because we planned to issue these heart valves completely free of charge. As experiment for first time in Sri Lanka we have processed Human Heart valve at the Tissue Bank

TISSUE BANK PROFILE

The Human Tissue Bank is the Model Project of the International Atomic Energy Agency implemented in Sri Lanka. This acceptance of the Tissue Bank as a model project is the culmination of a series of events. In Sri Lanka, we had envisaged the establish of a Tissue Bank to serve the people of the country for over 20 years. It appeared to be the natural progress of the eye donation movement, which itself started way back in 1959 for the purpose of providing donor corneas for the Eye Hospital in Colombo.

We had established ourselves as a major source of donor eyes to the world by the time the first Tissue Bank conference was held in Bombay in 1983. At that crucial meeting Sri Lanka was represented by Dr. Hudson Silva. He described what we had achieved in donation of eyes; and mentioned that a tissue bank is the next natural step. The prime movers of the Conference Prof Glyn O Phillips of UK and Dr Ramen Mukherjee of the Life Sciences Division of IAEA recognised the potential of Sri Lanka as the best place in the Asia Pacific Region to have a tissue bank.

The Human Tissue Transplantation Act No 48 was passed in 1987. So the tissue procurement and transplantation is legal in Sri Lanka. This act has stipulated the terms and conditions under which the extraction, processing, storage, retrieval and utilisation of human tissues should performed in Sri Lanka. It has covered all the legal requirements protecting donors, doctors and recipients. The MHTB conforms to all these regulations. Its Board of Management includes top level officials appointed by the Health Ministry. The operations of the facility full fill the needs of Sri Lanka hospitals as well as foreign hospitals .

The Model Project SRL/7/003 approved by IAEA envisages a multi-tissue bank dealing with all donor tissues including amnion, skin, bones, soft tissues (including tendons, ligaments, pericardium, fascia lata and eye sclera). Our plan is to obtain all donor tissues and make them available nationally, regionally and internationally

Following Tissues are processed in the Sri Lanka Human Tissue Bank

Bones -- Freeze Dried & Deep Frozen
Amniotic Membrane Freeze Dried & Deep Frozen in DMSO
Fascialata -- Deep Frozen
Dura Mater -- Deep Frozen
Pericardium Deep Frozen
Eye Sclera -- Deep Frozen

Tissue Utilization Local

1. National Hospital Colombo
2. National Eye Hospital Colombo
3. Military Hospital Colombo
4. General Hospital Sri Jayawardanapura
5. Government General Hospital Kandy
6. Government General Hospital Peradeniya
7. Government General Hospital Badulla
8. Government General Hospital Kurunegala
9. Government General Rathnapura
10. Government General Hospital Batticalo
11. Government General Hospital Jaffna

Tissue Utilization International

1. Madras Bone tumor Center India
2. National University Hospital Singapore
3. Malaysian Tissue Bank Kualalumpure
4. El Basrat Foundation Pakistan
5. Kiryu Eye Clinic Japan
6. Thon Hussain Eye Hospital Malaysia
7. Tissue Bank Korea
8.Kartun Sudan

How to Donate Tissues

Time Limit    Tissues should be retrieved within 12 hours of death
Age Limit    Above 10 years to 70 years
Diseases    Donors diseases classified by WHO are excluded
Transport    All transport facilities provide by Human Tissue Bank

Requirements for Tissue Donation

1 Donors Consent or
2 Guardians Consent at the time of death
3 Registered Death Certificate
4 I.D. Card of the Guardian
5 Consent form from the Guardian

After retrieval of Tissues

The Body appears as in the original
Body can be returned to guardians for final arrangements
Body can be buried with the help of Tissue Bank

How to get an Application Form for Eyes and Tissue Donation

Sri Lanka Human Tissue Bank
Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society
Vidya Mawatha, Colombo 7. Sri Lanka.

Links to Visit

Online registration to donate Eye & Tissues
Online registration for Kidney Donation

E-mail tissuebanksl@gmail.com

Phone 011 2692051, 2698040-41-43 Ext 230- 231- 232

Phone & Fax 94 11 2696109

Tissue Bank Links - You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXdeiqnzTUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U57uSbRm0l8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBGqRmFoLiQ