Delivery and Storage
Northwest Tissue Services delivers tissues using a local courier or cab service within the Puget Sound Region. Shipments outside the area travel via express delivery service. Emergency orders are accommodated using the above services, other same-day couriers, or commercial airlines.
To ensure safe arrival, NWTS only ships frozen and cryopreserved tissues with dry ice in an insulated foam cooler validated to hold a temperature below -40 ºC for at least 24 hours. A Cryoguard temperature-sensitive indicator accompanies cryopreserved tissues during shipment and changes color from green to red if the graft is exposed to temperatures higher than -40 ºC for more than a few moments.
Cryopreserved cardiovascular tissues (heart valves) travel in a dry nitrogen vapor shipper that maintains the graft at temperatures below -100 ºC. These shippers are validated to maintain adequate temperatures for 10 days, and these grafts are accompanied by two below -100 ºC Cryoguard monitors. If a shipment is received with a red indicator, please contact a Product Services Coordinator immediately to determine whether the tissue has been compromised.
For complete Order Guide information or assistance with selecting available tissue types, please contact a Product Services Consultant at 1-800-858-2282 or download a copy of our Allograft Reference Manual.