To determine the incidence of infection in grafting procedures utilizing
banked allograft bone, 567 questionnaires were sent to collaborating
surgeons who used Navy Tissue Bank freeze-dried allograft bone from October
1973 to October 1976. Three hundred and three questionnaires were
sufficiently completed to be included in the study. Twenty-one patients
were reported as showing evidence of infection, of which twelve were
considered minor and nine were considered major according to the effect on
the patient's postoperative course. In eleven of the twenty-one patients
there were positive cultures as proof of infection: in the remaining ten
there were not. Analysis of the proved infections showed that the allograft
was probably not primarily responsible in most of the patients. Based on
the data obtained in this study, the incidence of infection with the use of
banked allogenous bone appears to compare favorably with infection rates
reported for orthopaedic procedures utilizing autogenous bone.