Enabling the cryopreservation of parathyroid glands for hospitals without biobank

In case of the secondary Hyperparathyroidism, the cryopreservation and -storage of the parathyroid glands for a later autotransplantation may be necessary. This cryopreservation and cryostorage of parathyroid glands had been done in the past by the clinicians themselves. Due to the small number of cases and the lack of standardization, the hospital is expectedly not willing to invest in necessary equipment.

A new combination of a cryopreservation method with the transporting process had been developed to enable hospitals without biobank to provide this surgery. The intention was to facilitate the process of cryopreservation in the hospital and to store the tissue in a GMP compliant facility. Furthermore, the tissue vitality and functionality can be kept on a high level to optimise the effects of autotransplantation for the patient, regarding the regulatory requirements. With this new standard in the cryopreservation process hospitals were able to implement the Good Storing Practice (GSP) in their service portfolio, without implementing an own storage facility. At the central facility, a new standard of storing tissue had been introduced, which enables a closed cooling chain and automated data collection as well as cryopreservation of tissue. Establishing tests for vitality of parathyroid tissue will give us the opportunity to improve the fitness of parathyroid cells by adapting the process to new cryomedia. New data of successful cases of the year 2012 will be provided.