TUTOGEN IS YOUR SPECIALIST FOR ALLOGRAFTS AND XENOGRAFTS
Tutogen is a pharmaceutical medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets tissue preparations for the care of patients. As regenerative tissue or bone, Tutoplast® grafts help to treat tissue defects and restore and permanently sustain body functions and thus enhance patients' quality of life.
Where are tissue grafts used?
The application of tissue grafts is extremely varied. They are used, for example, for generating soft tissue, to fill bone voids resulting from tumors, in surgery to restore tendons and ligaments and also to correct congenital defects. Furthermore, the grafts are used in operations on the spine and for the revision of artificial hips. They are used in the ears-nose-throat field and likewise in hernia surgery for adults and for repairing abdominal wall defects in neonates. Above all, they are also applied in dental surgery for structuring the jawbone.
What is an autograft?
Autografts are grafts of the patient's own tissue. They therefore consist of biological material that is well suited for transplantation. However, the tissue naturally has to be taken during the operation from a second surgery site on the patient. This additional surgery can however, as in all operations, involve an anesthetic risk, additional pain at the secondary site which might last well after the operation, another scar, a possible longer stay in hospital and greater costs.
What is an allograft?
Allografts are likewise grafts of human tissue. These are taken from living or deceased donors. Donor tissue is used only if the donor consents or the donor’s family actively consents to the donation after death and there is complete documentation of the medical history and personal circumstances of the donor. The allografts are prepared so that the recipient's body accepts them just as if they were autografts and incorporates them into its own tissue. When applied as specified, allografts are not rejected and there is no need to pay attention to the matching of specific parameters.
Allografts provide the advantages of autografts, like the regeneration of tissue, but without additional secondary surgery stress and the potential risks involved. In addition, autografts can only be prepared for application during surgery. In contrast, as with metal and plastic implants, you can prepare allografts for application as required beforehand with appropriate precision tools. This in turn reduces the time needed for surgery.
Great progress has been made since the grafting of tissue began. The development of sterilization and preservation processes like the Tutoplast® process has made the use of allografts extremely safe today. However, not all providers of tissue grafts have chosen this type of sterilization process even though it offers patients a particularly high degree of safety.
What is a xenograft?
Xenografts are grafts of animal-derived connective and supporting tissue (at Tutogen Medical bovine tissue, i.e. from cows) for implantation in the human body. The preparation of animal-derived tissue at Tutogen Medical also undergoes the Tutoplast® process just as for human grafts. In this way, basically the same successful results can be achieved with sterile xenografts as with allografts.
