| ■ Human Tissues Recalled by Colorado Firm | 06.08.24 |
| Hundreds of human tissue products destined for transplants into patients across the United States have been recalled by a Colorado tissue provider, AlloSource. The recalled products were supplied by a North Carolina body parts broker who used an unsterile embalming room to extract tissue from dozens of corpses, the Associated Press reported. Last Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration closed down the body broker, Donor Referral Services of Raleigh, N.C. But the FDA would not disclose how many people have received potentially unsafe tissue from the broker. Cadaver tissue is used in more than a million transplants -- including for knee surgery and back repair -- in the United States each year. But tissue that's not properly processed or tested can lead to infections such as hepatitis or HIV/AIDS, or even death, the AP reported. This is the second incident to rock the U.S. tissue transplant industry in less than a year. In 2005, Biomedical Tissue Services of New Jersey was accused of using stolen bodies and of shipping about 20,000 potentially tainted body parts. |