Cost comparison of femoral head banking versus bone substitutes

Purpose. To compare the costs of femoral head banking versus bone substitutes. Methods. Records of femoral head banking from 1998 to 2008 were reviewed. The cost of allogenic cancellous bone graft was calculated by estimating the direct expenditure of femoral head procurement, screening tests, and storage, and then divided by the amount of bone harvested. Results. 326 females and 141 males (mean age, 80.3 years) donated 470 femoral heads. Each transplantable femoral head costs US$978. Each gram of transplantable allogenic bone graft costs US$86, compared with US$9 to 26 per gram for commercially available bone substitutes. Conclusion. Compared with bone substitutes, femoral head banking in Hong Kong was less economical. Unless allografts yield superior outcomes, harvesting femoral heads for general usage (such as filling bone voids for fresh fractures) is not justified from a financial perspective, especially in banks dedicated to Cost comparison of femoral head banking versus bone substitutes Hon-Bong Leung,1 Margaret Woon-Man Fok,1 Lorraine Chi-Yan Chow,2 Chi-Hung Yen3 1 Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong 2 Department of Surgery, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong 3 Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Hon-Bong Leung, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery ��������������� procuring bone from femoral heads only.