From October 2008, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) officially recognized the orthopaedic bone bank of the VUmc (Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg 2008). A biannual inspection is performed by the Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ) as a requirement to maintain this recognition. The bone bank procedure has to meet the requirements of the adjusted 'law of security and quality for using human materials' (Wet Veiligheid en Kwaliteit Lichaamsmateriaal 2003) . This law became effective from mid-2007 in the Netherlands as a result of European guidelines 2004/23/EC and 2006/86/EC. These guidelines state the technical requirements for coding, processing, preserving, storing, and distributing of human tissue and cells. Human tissue should be traceable, and serious side effects and incidents with human tissue and cells should be reported.