PHOTO: Hip bones are cleaned and ground down into 'Crunch' after surgery. (ABC: Ginny Stein)
MAP: Sydney 2000
Bones from hip replacement transplants give new life (ABC Australia)
In the business of bone donation, old hips are giving new life to people needing reconstructive surgery.
More than 33,000 hip replacements are performed each year in Australia.
VIDEO: Bones from hip replacement transplants give new life(Lateline)
If the patient ticks the bone donation box, part of the hip is taken away to be processed and turned into bone grafts.
When a hip is replaced, the ball at the top of the hip joint, the femoral head, is removed and a plastic socket put in its place.
In New South Wales, just 600 out of 6,000 hip replacement patients last year agreed to become living donors.
While the number remains low, it represents a steady increase.
Sharon Bryce from the Australian Tissue Donation Network said the majority of people are not aware of bone donation.
"You see bone from people in their 60s and 70s and 80s being used for example to transplant into children who are having spinal surgery," Ms Bryce said. "So children as young as two or three years of age are actually recycling or ...
