Quality issues in skin banking: a review

Over the last decade the concept of quality in healthcare has gained increasing prominence, not least in the field of skin and tissue banking. This was brought into sharp focus by the appearance of HIV, however, over the decade other viruses have also gained notoriety, e.g. Hepatitis C. The risk of cross infection has been the major factor driving tissue and blood banking towards ever improving standards of quality, which have been reinforced by national legislation and regulations, and professional standards. This has also provided an opportunity to consider other aspects of skin banking that might also affect quality and to offer standards or guidelines to optimise these aspects. The purpose of this review is to highlight these various quality issues in order to allow surgeons to make informed choices and decisions regarding their sources and uses of skin allografts.