Tissue Banking began in Thailand in 1979 at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok. At that time, tissues produced were freeze-dried bone grafts and sterilized by Ethylene Oxide. The first use of bone Allograft was in June 1979.

In 1980 a research grant was received from the Mahidol University. In 1984 the freeze-dried tissue Allograft project received award from the National Research Council of Thailand. The Bangkok Biomaterial Center was officially opened on December 6, 1984 and has the Royal Patronage of from her Royal Highness Princess Galyanivadhana. The center is located in the hospital building of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Siriraj Hospital and maintains the necessary proximity with clinical medicine. The center is involved in the procurement, processing, storage and development in these areas. A variety of Allograft including bone, cartilage, fascia, dura, cornea and cardiovascular tissues have been procured and processed. Preservation and long term storage are accomplished by freeze-drying, deep-freezing or by chemical means. Grafts prepared by the Bangkok Biomaterial Center are supplied upon requests from the surgeons in different hospitals and medical institutions throughout Thailand.

The Bangkok Biomaterial Center acts as the National Tissue and Allograft Bank in Thailand. It follows the GMP and AATB standards. It is in the process of getting awarded the ISO 9002. Most of the financing comes from the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj hospital, Mahidol University, Public Donations and the rest from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Center does not charge the recipients for the Allograft it supplies. The Center also supplies the Tissue & Allograft free of cost to foreign institutions/hospitals on request.

Intially the center was processing Tissue and Bone Allografts to meet the demand for Thailand only. Now the Center has sufficient stocks, maintianed round the clock for instant delivery to all over Thailand and other Countries on request. The initial stages for the setting up of the Laboratory, training of the lab technicians and other staffs was very laborious and hard, as there were not much documented manuals on the subject. However it was the painstaking and non-stop challenging efforts of the Director, which laid the foundation for the establishment of the strong edifice of this Center.

However just producing and using the allografts by one man was not sufficient to bring in a revolution. The need of time was that more and more surgeons use allografts and also other branches of medical fraternity join in to provide feedback and conduct vigorous pathological, biochemical and other laboratory tests to prove the effectiveness of allografts over other artificial products. During 1988, Prof. Yongyudh became the Secretary General of the International College of Surgeons (ICS), an esteemed association having expert surgeons and clinicians from all disciplines of medical science. Taking advantage of his appointment, Prof. Yongyudh urged the members of ICS to use the allografts to demonstrate its effectiveness and complications. This paved the way for the organizing of the 1^st workshop in 1989 for tissue bank operators and users in Bangkok. At this time Prof. Yongyudh was also of very strong opinion that there was a very strong need for an association in the Asia Pacific Region which would bring in Tissue bankers, surgeons, clinicians, scientists and tissue bank workers together on a common platform to share their scientific knowledge and experience about tissue banking. At the same time this association will provide the umbrella support under which technology transfers, scientific know-how exchange, sharing of tissue allograft and personnel can also take place. Thus gave the birth to the Asia Pacific Association of Tissue Banking (APASTB) in 1988 and its 1^st conference was combined with the workshop of the tissue bank operators. Prof. Yongyudh was the founder President of APASTB and held this appointment for 2 years. From 1990-1998, he also served as the secretary general of APASTB. In 1999, he was honored with the honorary membership of European Association of Tissue Banks (EATB) at the 2^nd world congress of Tissue Banking held at Warsaw, Poland.

As time passed by, number of allograft users were growing and so was the demand also. A time came when the Bangkok Biomaterial Center was left with very small stock of bone allografts. This gave rise to a new problem and that was to find the sources for the availability of bones and tissues. During the 70s and 80s, we have witnessed the hurdles sustained by the blood donation campaigners. It was considered an uphill task and millions of dollars were pumped all over the world employing every option in the media to change the public opinion towards blood donation. However blood donation was a different story, that people can consent for it in the event of an emergency because it did not affect their body.

However asking for donation of human bones and tissues was a very different story. It was a very vague term for the general public as well as medical professionals. In the entire Asia Pacific region, it was only in the textbooks that public donation of human bones and tissues was possible. The socio-religious environment in the Asian countries is very different from those of Europe and Americas. There were many social and religious beliefs that if any part of the human body is lost or removed from one’s body then they will be born deficient of that part in their next life. Furthermore the social stigma of asking for bones and tissues from the deceased or the living people was very embarrassing. Last of all personal and professional integrity of the campaigners to avoid any commercial or monetary overtones to the public donation was the most dreaded. These factors complicated the whole scenario. It was no more blood donation. Now the story was Bone and tissue donation.

Somewhere the start has to be made by someone. With this logic, Prof. Yongyudh went ahead with his mission to make this dream turn into a reality. A dream if fulfilled will strive to serve for the betterment of mankind. In 1984, Bangkok Biomaterial Center in association with the Forensic Medicine department, Siriraj Hospital made a Tissue donation study on the attitude of next of kin who comes for taking back the deceased body for cremination. It was found out that in the mourning situation response of people involved directly to the deceased was not positive. We had only 30% consent from the next of kin or relatives. Another 60 % were against tissue donation and the rest 10% had no response. This study showed that there was a desperate need of an aggressive campaign for tissue donation. The first report of successful allograft transplantation was announced in leading newspapers like Bangkok Post, Thairat and Khasot. This was followed by the first TV programme titled “Tissue Transplantation” on TV Channel 9 in 1989. These two events were the beginning of a never-ending saga of public donation campaign of human tissues. After this, ever year as a protocol, the Bangkok Biomaterial Center organizes 2 TV programmes a year, 2 articles in the local newspaper, 2 articles in local magazines, 1 article in medical news general magazine, 2 radio programmes and 1 article in other social magazines with national outreach.

This was the beginning of the public donation campaigning. However within a short time Prof. Yongyudh realized that it was equally important to start a Professional Awareness programmes also for medical professionals from various disciplines of medicine. Thus he went ahead with the idea and organized the first Medical resident’s seminar at Siriraj Hospital in 1995. This was followed by rigorous hard work towards lecturing on tissue banking concept, processing/ preservation/sterilization/storage/packaging/transportation techniques and ethics. Demonstrating surgical techniques for the application of allografts went parallel to the lectures. Soon there were requests from hospitals all over Thailand, and ASEAN countries for expert lectures in tissue banking and demonstration surgeries using allograft. On an average 2 demonstration surgeries are conducted by Prof. Yongyudh every month inside Thailand and 1 demonstration surgery outside Thailand every year. As time passed by, medical professionals were able to pick up very fast due to their professional dynamism. Post-Graduate training for medical residents in tissue banking has become a part of the curriculum of the medical council. The media initially employed for public awareness programmes were printed and audiovisual only. Now it was the time to go ahead with live tissue donation programmes. This gave rise to the need of conducting a seminar like exhibitions at a public place to catch the eyes of the general public. The opportunity to conduct such a programme was provided by the 5 years anniversary of Bangkok Biomaterial Center in 1990. This programme was organized at a centrally localized biggest shopping center (Mahabunkrong Shopping Center) of Thailand in Bangkok. Similarly the 2^nd programme was organized during the 10 years anniversary of Bangkok Biomaterial Center in 1994 at another major centrally localized shopping center (PATA shopping center) in Bangkok. After this programme the Bangkok Biomaterial Center has been organizing every year 2 programmes in temples, 1 programme in shopping center and 1 programme in any other important public place.

During this time (1994-95) Prof. Yongyudh felt that it was the time to go all out into the Tissue donation campaigns and give a thrust to increase the momentum of volunteer donors’ recruitment. Being an active social worker has also contributed to the development of Thai Society, Prof. Yongyudh was having the appointments of Environment Commissioner of Scouts, Member of the Asia Pacific Regional Scout Committee and President of a Chapter of the Rotary club International. The first lecture on tissue donation titled “Human Tissue Banking” was given at the Annual meeting of Rotary Club Dusit in 1984, followed by Rotary club Pinklao in the same year. This was followed by lectures to schoolchildren on the concept of Tissue Banking and the need for Tissue Donation. The 1^st school to deliver the lecture was Thawaranukun School, Bangkok in the year 1994 and the title of the lecture was “Bone Allograft Surgery”. This was followed by numerous lectures to scouts during scout camps and training sessions. Every year Prof. Yongyudh delivers 1 lecture each to Rotary Clubs, Scouts, Schools and other public seminars. In 1999, Prof. Yongyudh had been able to start a project of tissue donation, jointly in collaboration with Rotary International and National Scouts Organization of Thailand.

An important segment which was not getting much attention were the tissue bank workers & users to evaluate themselves and address to the short comings and new techniques which can be employed in Tissue Banking. Thus the first 2 days seminar of Tissue bank workers and users was organized in 1994 at the Woodland Beach Resort, Pattaya, Thailand. After this event, every year the Bangkok Biomaterial Center has been organizing one seminar cum workshop for tissue banking workers and users. One segment, which was not touched, were the operating room nurses, who had fairly very little knowledge about tissue banking and allografts. In 1999, Bangkok Biomaterial Center organized the first hands on workshop –cum- seminar on the “Role of Scrub Nurses in Tissue Banking”. This seminar is the 1^st seminar in the world to be delivered to the operating room nurses.

To start a Tissue Bank, there are three essential components. The first and the foremost is Donor. Second important is the Tissue Bank staffs and the 3^rd is Surgeon / recipients. The general public in the entire Asia-Pacific Region does not know tissue donation including Brain Dead organ donation because this discipline is not well established in the region to surgeons and the legal system. In 1992 the Bangkok Biomaterial Center had a TV Programme in which medical problems where highlighted, that needed Allografts. On the next day of the Programme there was some response from general public and some of them came to our center for registering themselves as donors.

At this time (1994 – 2000), the Bangkok Biomaterial Center started a project of Tissue donor card system for all donors. This was similar to the Blood Bank donor card system. During the second 5th year of our Tissue Bank, we thought of increasing public awareness. We came out with the idea that it we are able to share information with the organ transplantation project of the Red Cross, We will be able to get more brain drain dead case information. Since the objective of both the organizations were same i.e. to utilize the tissues of Brain dead cases and use it in other living humans, We started this project. We get lot of help from the Red Cross towards information about possible brain dead donors. Another good reason is that the organ transplant project team takes high precautions to evaluate, care and monitor the donor to ensure that brain donor is free from any disease. This gives us the opportunity to be sure that the donated tissue are safe. Till now we have 16 cases of brain dead donors. In December 1997, we had organized a counseling workshop for tissue and organ donation at our center. It was the first course of its kind for public awareness on tissue and organ donation. We tried to approach the Buddhist Monk University to recruit their students for this project.

To carry on with research and development work in the field of tissue banking in Thailand and in the region, Prof. Proposed at the IAEA Project Formulation meeting of RCA meeting at Manila in 1992, to setup a parallel discipline for continuing education of Tissue Bank personnel. This education could be in the form of training in 2 levels viz. Tissue bank operators and Advance Training for Tissue Bank Directors. At this meeting Prof. Yongyudh also proposed that Bangkok Biomaterial Center, under Mahidol University, Bangkok could be the center for starting an Advance Training Course cum Master Degree Programme in Tissue Banking. This proposal was recorded in the minutes of the meeting and accordingly IAEA observer Prof. G.O. Phillips was deputed in 1994 to conduct a feasibility study at Bangkok Biomaterial Center and the Mahidol University to comment on the proposal. During the meeting of the IAEA expert with President of Mahidol University, Dean of Post- Graduate Studies and Prof. Yongyudh Vajaradul, it was accepted by the Mahidol University in principle, the idea to start the course at Bangkok Biomaterial Center. Mahidol University recognized this Advance Training Course as “Master of Science in Bone and Tissue Banking” in 1998. The curriculum of Master Degree Course is still under consideration of Mahidol University and final touches are being given to make it perfect. Subsequently the first batch of students joined this course from 31^st March 1999 and the second batch was commenced from 2^nd April 2000.

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