Bone tissue, lyophilized and stored at room temperature for 15 days or more, is not capable of transmitting HIV, HCV or HBV

Over the past 57 years, 17 recipients of frozen bone have been infected with: HIV (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Morb Mortal Wkly Rep MMWR 37(39):597-599, 1988; Li et al. in J Formos Med Assoc 100(5):350-351, 2001; Simonds et al. in NEJM 326(11):726-732, 1992; Schratt et al. in Unfallchirurg 99(9):679-684, 1996); HCV (Eggen and Nordbo in NEJM 326(6):411, 1992; Conrad et al. in J Bone Joint Surg Am 77:214-224, 1995; Trotter in J Bone Joint Surg Am 851(11):2215-2217, 2003; Tugwell et al. in Ann of Internal Med 143(9):648-654, 2005); or HBV (Shutkin in J Bone Joint Surg Am 36:160-162, 1954). However, bone, lyophilized and stored at room temperature, has never transmitted these viral diseases. A literature review was undertaken to determine whether there is any evidence that lyophilized bone is capable of transmitting HIV, HCV and HBV.