On this day in 1998 Lloyd Wolfinbarger Jr. was granted the patent for Ultrasonic Cleaning of Allograft Bone. U.S. Patent No. 5,797,871.
The invention is directed to a method for cleaning cadaveric donor bone to produce bone grafts suitable for transplantation into a human, as well as the bone grafts produced thereby. The present method involves removing bone marrow potentially containing bacteria, virus or fungi, from the donor bone by sonicating the bone in a solvent containing one or more detergents to produce bone grafts essentially free from bone marrow, as well as bone grafts essentially free from any detectable bacterial, fungal, or viral contamination.
