the effects of epidemiological characteristics of cornea donors and donor corneal evaluation parameters on quality of donor cornea

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of donor epidemiologic characteristics and donor corneal examination findings on quality of donor cornea. Methods: The records of our eye bank were analyzed for one year period between March 2012-February 2013 with respect to donor demographics (gender, age), donor procurement source, donor cause of death, death-to-preservation interval, donor cornea laboratory assessment, corneal tissue utilization, and distribution. Results: During the study period, 98 corneas were retrieved from 52 donors (44.2% male, 55.8% female), with the mean age of donors 49.1±15.7 years. (Range 5 to 68 years). The most common causes of donor death were cardiovascular disease (46.2%) and cerebrovascular disease (23.1%). Only 5.7% of the donors were derived from multiorgan donations at other centers and the rest were from our hospital. The mean death-to-preservation time was 1.65±1.26 hours. Overall, 96.2% of corneal tissue procured was used for corneal transplantation (95.75% in our hospital, 4.25% in other transplantation centers) and 3.8 % was discarded. There were significant correlations between donor age and endothelial cell density (ECD), and donor age and hexagonality. Regression analysis showed that the most determinative factor on tissue quality was ECD. Only reason for discarding tissue was abnormal serology. Conclusion: The main parameter that affects quality of donor cornea was ECD and the most significant factor having impact on ECD was donor age. The reason for no evidence of tissue discarding because of low tissue quality was thought to be related with a comprehensive preliminary assessment and not to receive corneas from older donors.