The activity of the Cardiovascular Tissue Bank consists in the procurement of human valves and vessels from multiorgan or cadaveric donors and in their proceeding, cryopreservation, validation for distribution and clinical employment.

Tissues are usually employed in bacterial endocarditis, pediatric cardiac surgery, aortic ring abscess, reoperation of valvular substitution (insufficiency and valve degeneration), aortic ectasia, small aortic anulus, sinus Valsalve aneurysm, native vessels infections, prosthetic infections, artero-venous fistula for haemodialisis etc.

The Cardiovascular Tissue Bank at Centro Cardiologico Monzino, together with the Treviso bank, is the oldest cardiovascular tissue bank in Italy.
Founded in 1992 with the name of Banca Italiana Omoinnesti (BIO), in 2005 it became the only cardiovascular bank recognized and authorized by the Regione Lombardia Health System.

The bank activity, strictly connected with the CIR/CRR activity (Centro Interregionale di Riferimento/Centro Regionale di Riferimento), follows both the European (Directive 2004/23/CE) and the Italian guidelines (July 2013).

The surgical and technician bank team is available 24h-365d.
Since 2005 the Cardiovascular Tissue Bank has been certified both ISO 9001-2008 and CNT (National Transplantation Center) for activity of “reception, proceeding, preservation and distribution of cardiovascular tissues of human origin”. It has also been registered in the European Registry of cardiovascular banks.
Since 2016 it has been among the founding members and in the Scientific Committee of the Italian Tissue Bank Association (AIBAT).

The Tissue Bank:

• maintains at the Interregional Reference Centre (CIR - Milan) the biological archive consisting of blood samples from donors. Provides the healthcare facilities with operational protocols for the collection and transport of tissues and operational protocols for the request of the tissue. If the fabrics are not available, it is responsible for processing the request by contacting national or foreign banks;
• collect data on donors and recipients of the same tissues; send the CIR and CNT (National Transplantation Center - Rome) periodic reports of the activity carried out and send the regional offices the activity report, and distributes the tissue accompanied by all the documentation that originates from the bank itself and sensitizes the transplantation facilities to keep a copy together with the recipient’s medical records;
• works and distributes only fabrics having the highest quality level among those allowed by the regulations of the National Transplantation Center - CNT (Ref. Technical Document from the Permanent Consultation and the National Center for Transplantation);
• in order to further guarantee the quality of its products and services, has requested and obtained the VISION 2000 certification of its quality system.