Our 7-year old daughter has a very serious scoliosis that requires spinal fusion. The surgeon is talking about using bone from a donor bank. We are concerned about the possiblity of her getting AIDS or bone cancer or some other illness this way. Is it really safe?

To date, there are no reported cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or cancer being passed to someone receiving a bone graft. There has always been some concern about passing along viruses and infections through donated bone grafts. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons more surgeons have not used a bone bank.

But some operations require far more bone than a single patient can donate for her own use. In the case of spinal fusion for scoliosis, there can be multiple levels fused. This requires quite a few bone chips. The natural next step is to consider using donated bone.

And according to a recent study from Harvard University, this method is safe. Over 100 children with congenital scoliosis deformity were treated with spinal fusion. All received bone grafts from a donor bank.

The infection rate was very low (less than one per cent). No one got HIV/AIDS. The failure rate was also very low (less than three per cent). Almost everyone had a successful fusion. Bone substitute from a donor bank were a safe and effective alternative to bone taken directly from the patient.