London Health Sciences Centre is investigating if its surgeons used human tissue products that were recalled because they might have been taken illegally from corpses at funeral homes in the United States.
Health Canada has warned that 300 human tissue products from Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. in the United States had been sold to companies in the Toronto area.
Biomedical Tissue Services supplies hospitals, physicians and dental offices across the country, and the products are mainly used in orthopedic surgery and dental procedures.
The company is apparently under investigation for allegedly obtaining bones and other tissues from bodies trafficked from New York-area funeral homes.
The London Health Sciences Centre is investigating if its surgeons used human tissue products that were recalled because they might have been taken illegally from corpses at funeral homes in the United States.
Health Canada says that all patients who received these tissue products should be tested for HIV-1 and 2, the viruses that cause AIDS, hepatitis B and C, human T-cell lymphotropic virus and syphilis.
LHSC has said it is aware of the tissue recall and is conducting its own investigation.
Gary Byrne, vice-president of diagnostics at the hospital,says that at this point, there is no indication that LHSC has been supplied with any of the recalled tissue products by its biomedical suppliers.
If they learn otherwise they will act immediately on Health Canada's advice and contact all patients who received these products.