Appraising Five Years in Activity of the Largest Public Canadian Vascular Graft Bank

In Canada, tissue distribution is managed by provincial entities. In 2014, Hema-Quebec established a cryopreserved vascular tissue bank accessible to all Canadian hospitals. The objectives of this report were to review the first 5 years of activity of Hema-Quebec's vascular bank and to briefly assess the competitiveness of its products. Deceased donors, ages 15 to 60, were screened for common blood-borne diseases. Grafts were treated in a triple-antibiotic solution at 35 C before preservation at -100 C. Hema-Quebec's vascular graft records were analyzed from 2014 to 2019 inclusively. The average donor age was 35 years old and 78% of donors were men. Overall, 63% of harvested grafts cleared the quality management system. Positive microbial cultures and morphologic defects were the major reasons for graft discard. As such a total of 60 grafts were delivered between 2016 and 2019 to 8 hospital centers. Moreover, the bank achieved a mean activity increase of 55% per year and Hema-Quebec's homografts were 48% less costly compared to similar homographs from for-profit organizations. Importantly, our findings demonstrate that Hema-Quebec has established a viable cryopreserved vascular tissue bank with steady increase in activity and an acceptable graft discard rates and pricing. Based on our findings, we recommend that efforts should be directed to expand the tissue bank graft distribution outside the province of Quebec.