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  1. About Us
  2. Department Activity
  3. Education & Courses
  4. Research
  5. Information
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  7. Contact Us

We believe that life is a gift to share. Our services provide the gift of life through tissue donation and transplantation.

The TMH Tissue Bank is a non-profit service dedicated to the supply of safe, reliable, high quality and cost-effective human tissues for transplantation. Conceived as part of a programme of the International Atomic Energy Agency (UN) to promote the use of radiation for upgrading healthcare in the Asia-Pacific Region, it was established in 1988, at a time when Tissue Banks were almost unheard of in India, and few existed in Asia. A pioneer in the field, it is the first tissue bank in India to use radiation for the sterilisation of biological tissues, and in 2004 became Asia’s first Tissue Bank with an ISO 9001:2000 Certified Quality Management System.

The removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and tissues for therapeutic purposes is regulated by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, and as required by this Act, the TMH Tissue Bank was registered with the Directorate of Health Services, Maharashtra State in 2001. After every five years The TMH Tissue Bank ensures renewal of registration, obtained from the appropriate authority after an in depth review and scrutiny of documentation and procedures.

Currently it banks gamma-irradiated, human amnion, chorion, amnion-chorion membranes, skin, tendons and a wide variety of bone products and promotes the development of tissue banks. As part of its commitment to create professional awareness about quality assurance, promote the establishment of more tissue banks, and facilitate the formulation of national standards and regulations, in 2006 the Tissue Bank conducted the 11th International Conference of the Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Banks with the theme: “Issues on Tissues”. This was the first time that this multidisciplinary conference was held in India

Tissue Banking is a multidisciplinary service requiring compliance with statutory regulations, stringent quality control and continuous interaction with professionals and the community. At the TMH Tissue Bank we are committed to respecting the gift of donated tissue and meeting the demands of transplanted tissue by

  • Networking with government agencies and existing organ donation programmes to establish regulations and standards for tissue banking.
  • Creating public and professional awareness of the need for tissue donation, as well as the use and benefits of allografts.
  • Maintaining ethical, legal and medical standards for the donation and provision of tissue.
  • Facilitating the tissue donation process by making available resources and specialised services to tissue recovery agencies.
  • Implementing international standards of Quality Assurance through good manufacturing practices for the retrieval, processing and storage of grafts.
  • Providing allografts to patients of all economic strata.
  • Promoting the development of tissue banks in the country.

The Tissue Bank is a well equipped facility and its layout and design permit the separation of various procedures enabling the control of environmental contamination. Donated tissues are sourced from an established network of donor surgeons and hospitals. The tissues are screened, processed and sterilized by gamma radiation resulting in the availability of safe and clinically effective grafts, which has served an ever increasing demand for these grafts. From1989 to 2022 the TMH Tissue Bank produced almost 1.5 lakh grafts. Besides in house use, these grafts have been utilised forpatients in more than 650 hospitals across India.

Our experience of setting up India's first multi-tissue bank, inclusive of its design, protocols and clinical applications, constitutes part of the IAEA Multi-media Distance Learning Package, the first of its kind for tissue bank operators, managers and doctors, introduced in 1997.

Additionally, assistance in the form of hands-on training, consultation and project proposals are provided for setting up tissue banks and/or tissue retrieval centres in different parts of the country. TMH has helped establish such facilities at hospitals in Jodhpur, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Surat, Mangaluru and Jaipur.

Public and professional awareness programmes to promote tissue donation also form an intrinsic part of the Tissue Bank educational activities since the number of grafts produced is directly related to the donor pool.

The TMH Tissue Bank has also contributed to a ROTTO – SOTTO video on increasing awareness of tissue donation which is streaming on the on You Tube.

A number of studies are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the grafts in different clinical conditions, to develop new products and improve the biological efficacy of grafts.The Tissue Bank pioneered the use of freeze-dried, gamma radiated amnion and bone granules and is still the only Tissue Bank providing indigenous, cost effective, membranes as a wound dressing and bone granules for guided tissue regeneration in the oral cavity. Currently the Tissue Bank is jointly conducting a trial with IIT funded by a DST grant for the “Processing of waste placental tissue from maternity wards into regenerative tissue grafts for non-healing wounds and other clinical applications"

Information for Donors

Allografts available from the Tissue Bank are obtained from donors who have been screened to rule out any transmissible diseases. This includes serology tests for viral markers. The tissues are further processed and terminally sterilised with irradiation. The grafts are freeze-dried to reduce their immunogenicity and increase their shelf life. The freeze-dried, irradiated allografts are available off-the-shelf as ready-to-use packs. They may be conveniently stored at room temperature for up to 3 years. Processed, frozen, irradiated bone can be stored at -80◦C for up to 5 years

The following medical and surgical residues can be donated to the Tissue Bank.

1. Amniotic membranes post delivery
2. Femoral Heads obtained subsequent to primary hip replacement or treatment for femoral neck fracture.
3. Tibial shavings from total knee replacement surgery or bone wedges from tibial osteotomies.
4. Long bones procured from amputated limbs after appropriate medical assessment.
5. Skin from abdominoplasties.
6. Tendons

Information for medical practitioners

The following irradiated, freeze-dried or frozen products are readily available in various sizes and some products are custom made as per the requirements of the user surgeon.

1. Amnion (Sizes available 4-9 Sq.cm, 10-45 Sq.cm, 46 -99 Sq.cm,>100 Sq.cm)
2. Chorion (Size available 4 Sq.cm)
3. Amnion-chorion membrane
4. Tendons
5. Bone   

  • Femoral Heads
  • Tibial Slices
  • Struts
  • Bone Granules (Sizes available: <500 micron, 500-1040 micron, >1040 micron)
  • Bone Blocks (Available in various sizes)
  • Demineralized Bone Granules (Sizes available: <500 micron, 500-1040 micron, >1040 micron)
  • Demineralized Bone Blocks (Available in various sizes)
  • Demineralized Bone Strips
  • Miscellaneous Bones

Clinical Utilisation of Banked Tissue

The grafts from our bank benefit a wide variety of patients.

Amniotic membrane obtained post delivery is an excellent biological dressing which mimics skin. Banked amnion is used as a temporary, external wound cover to promote healing in chronic ulcers, unresponsive bedsores, abscesses, skin graft donor sites and wounds, including those following dermabrasion and laser treatment. The use of amnion in the treatment of full and partial thickness burns has special appeal in this part of the world, as despite advances in burn management the mortality rate continues to be high and the search for an economical and easily available dressing to control burn wound infection continues.

Amnion is also used in case of vaginoplasty, diabetic foot ulcers and varicose veins. As compared to conventional dressings, healing with amnion dressings is faster, more economical and user friendly. Amnion can also be used in orbital and ocular surface reconstruction and as a basement membrane for stem cell transfer. Chorion and amnion-chorion membrane are being used as barrier membranes in oral surgeries. Amnion is also used in the management of moist desquamation following radiotherapy in cancer patients.

Bone allografts are used in various conditions. Dental surgeons use them to treat defects in the jaw. Mineralised bone granules are used to create osteoconductive scaffolds and demineralised bone granules are used as osteoinductive scaffolds and to trigger the growth of cells so that new bone is formed around a tooth or a dental implant. Morselized bone and bone blocks are used to fill cavities which may have been caused due to disease or trauma. They may be used to reinforce bone that has been weakened, as in patients with osteoarthritis and those needing total knee or hip replacement. Small segments of bone are used for bony fusion while correcting deformities in the spine. Bone blocks, strips or struts can be used to provide support during fracture healing particularly when the bones do not unite on their own. They can also serve as a structural support in the form of additional cortices for screw fixation. In cancer patients they are used to replace the recipient’s bone stock by packing it into the large defects resulting after the removal of tumours.

Department Members

Prof. Ajay Puri

 
democontent

Designation: Head, Surgical Oncology & Head -Tissue Bank

 

Ms. Urmila C. Samant

 
democontent

Designation: Consultant

 

Dr Vijay Chavan

 
democontent

Designation: Scientific Officer ‘D’

 

Mr. Mangesh Morey

 
democontent

Designation: Scientific Officer ‘C’

 

The TMH Tissue Bank may be contacted for

  • Donation of tissue
  • Supply of banked tissue

Requests for grafts in Mumbai or outside Mumbai shall be sent by a registered medical practitioneron the original letter head. For outside Mumbai it must be accompanied by a Demand Draft for the required amount in favour of “Tata Memorial Hospital”. Courier and postal charges are extra.

Phone: Department Office Number: (+9122)  2417 7000 , 022-6953700 Ext. 4122 / 4112

Address: Tissue Bank,Tata Memorial Hospital, Main Building (Basement), Dr. Ernest Borges Marg, Parel, Mumbai 400 012., Maharashtra, India

Fax: Hospital Fax Number: (+9122) 414 6937

Email-id: Email-id: tissuebank@tmc.gov.in

 

हमसे संपर्क करें

टाटा स्मारक अस्पताल
डॉ ई बोर्जेस रोड, परेल, मुंबई - 400 012 भारत 
फ़ोन: +91-22- 24177000, 24146750 - 55
फैक्स: +91-22-24146937
ईमेल : msoffice@tmc.gov.in (रोगी देखभाल और प्रश्नों के लिए) / hrd@tmc.gov.in(प्रशासनिक के लिए - HRD मायने रखता है)

1137153 (222)