Nottingham Bone Bank

The Nottingham Bone Bank is a Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licensed tissue bank and forms part of the Clinical Tissue Laboratory based at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham. Established in 1991, the Nottingham Bone Bank has expanded over the years, providing a service to five local hospitals in the Nottingham Trent region - the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham City Hospital, King’s Mill Hospital, The Park Hospital and The Nottingham Woodthorpe.

The Nottingham Bone Bank harvests femoral heads from patients undergoing total hip replacements. Approximately 200-300 are harvested per annum and these are used for patients requiring revision surgery, particularly revision hip, knee and shoulder replacements and also for scoliosis correction in children.

Femoral heads are fresh frozen for a minimum of 180 days (a requirement by law) at -80˚C. Each stage of the donation process from consent, medical assessment of donors, serology testing, storage and clinical use of bone is governed by a robust quality system to ensure safety and confidentiality of both donor and recipient.