The IAEA¡¯s developmental objective for technical cooperation in tissue banking is to improve health care in developing countries by providing tissue grafts for the treatment of burns, leprosy ulcers, wounds and bone repair after trauma and disease. Most developing countries do not have the technology to provide grafts while the cost of importing is prohibitive.

The IAEA's core contribution is the technology for tissue sterilization by gamma radiation - both for reducing the pre-processing bacterial load and as a terminal sterilization process. Compared to alternative sterilization methods, radiation sterilization is safe circumventing the problem of deposits of harmful residuals in the tissue as with the use of ethylene oxide gas.

See the detailed documents on the web site;
http://www-tc.iaea.org/tcweb/strategy/thematic/tissuebanking/default.asp


Documents:
Tissue Banking Summary Report
Tissue Banking Thematic Plan
Hand in Hand: Medical Tissue Banks & Radiation Technology


Theme related TC Projects:
View the list of theme related TC Projects


Theme related Factsheets:
Tissue Bank: Sri Lanka


Theme related Web-Resources:
Enhancing the Quality of Health Care


Thematic Planning Presentations:
Radiation and Tissue Banking in East Asia and the Pacific Region
Risks of Transmission by Tissue Transplantation