Evaluation of the microbial load in human bone tissue after deantigenation and beta ray sterilization

An ever increasing number of traumas concerning the skeletal system has led to a sound development of the research of appropriate materials to be used in human bone transplantation and grafting. The use of natural bone, up to now, has proved to be the most effective and clinically safe system. However, to obtain a good result in vivo, the principle feature of the bone must necessarily be its low microbial load, or even better, the complete absence of microorganisms. The aim of the study was the microbial load evaluation during the various stages of the Bioteck (UBTT Service) process of bone material harvested from human femoral heads, which undergo "deantigenation" and beta ray sterilization. The preliminary results prove that "deantigenation" determines a reduction of the number of microorganisms in the bone. Beta ray sterilization induces a further reduction of microbial loads.