The Global Muckraker
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
July 26, 2012
Doctors uniformly agree that heart valves recovered from donor cadavers can save lives where mechanical valves or those from pig or cow do not help. Recovered corneas can restore sight. And recovered human skin can serve as an optimal dressing for severe burn injuries.
The benefits, however, aren’t so clear when discussion turns to musculoskeletal tissues.
In Germany, a country renowned for having one of the best health care systems in the world, surgeons use bone, tendon or fascia implants less often than their U.S colleagues.
Take abdominal surgery, for example. In the United States, among other products, mesh made of recovered human skin is used for hernia repairs. German surgeons prefer synthetic mesh.
Read the full article at ICIJ
