Tissue recall might affect local patients

Bloomington Hospital announced Friday that eight of its patients who underwent anterior cervical fusion surgery -- an operation that relieves pressure on nerves and the spinal cord -- might have received infected tissue. \nAt the end of 2005, Regeneration Technologies, Inc. informed Bloomington Hospital that some of the tissue the company received through Biomedical Tissue Services, Ltd. that was distributed to the hospital might not have been properly screened for infectious diseases such as syphilis, hepatitis and HIV. \nThe hospital responded to the warning by reviewing the records of the 115 patients who underwent anterior cervical fusion surgery between September 2004 and August 2005. The operation fuses together vertebrae in the upper spine. Medtronic, one of RTI's distributors, sent the hospital identification numbers for all the tissue it used, and the hospital had to cross-reference all of those numbers with patient records to determine who might be affected, said Sharon Ormstedt, administrative director of surgical services for the hospital.\n"We were obviously very concerned and we started the process of going through records to see which patients are affected and how we can help them through this," she said.\nThough the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control suspect the risk for the transmission of infectious disease from the tissue is low, the FDA recommended that patients be tested, according to a press release sent Friday. Bloomington Hospital is now offering free blood tests to those who might be at risk. Medtronic will cover lab costs associated with patient testing.\nOrmstedt emphasized that there is "a very slim possibility" that one of the eight patients will be infected, but if a problem arises, the hospital will be ready.\n"The hospital will provide testing and work closely with Medtronic," she said. "They'll tell us what steps to take next."\nBloomington Hospital is not the only hospital affected by the recall of tissues from BTS, which is now closed and subject to federal investigation. RTI is only one of the company's five distributors, and Medtronic alone had to recall more than 13,000 pieces of tissue it had distributed. \nMany hospitals all over the country will have to handle the situation, according to the press release. The FDA has not yet received any reports of patients becoming ill from the recalled tissue.\nDespite the recall, Ormstedt said in the press release that Bloomington Hospital will continue to use tissue from RTI in the future.\n"RTI is a highly reputable firm, and we continue to use (its) products," she said. "They, like us, were unsuspecting victims of the BTS activity"