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Impact of corneal donor post‐mortem time on the rate of culture medium contaminations
Author(s) -
GRUENERT A,
ROSENBAUM K,
GEERLING G,
FUCHSLUGER T
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2012.3435.x
Subject(s) - cornea , eye bank , medicine , economic shortage , corneal transplantation , ophthalmology , corneal transplant , surgery , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics)
Purpose In the majority of European countries there is a shortage of donor corneas for corneal transplantations. In 2007, the EU Directive 2006/17/EC on ‘technical requirements for the donation, procurement and testing of human tissues and cells’ was introduced restricting the usability of post‐mortem donor blood sampling from 72 hours to 24 hours. As a consequence, post‐mortem time for donor cornea acquisition was shortened, resulting in a further reduction of corneal allografts. This study analyzed the effect of donor cornea post mortem‐time on medium contamination in organ culture storage. Methods Contamination rates during corneal organ culture during extended (2008‐9, Group I) versus restricted post‐mortem time protocols (2010‐11, Group II) were retrospectively analyzed. Data were collected at LIONS Cornea Bank North Rhine‐Westphalia, University Eye Hospital Duesseldorf, Germany. Results In the years 2008 and 2009 (Group I) 1272 corneal grafts with a post‐mortem time of 30.05 ± 15.77 hours were collected and cultivated in LIONS Cornea Bank NRW. After introduction of the new guidelines, the overall number of acquired donor corneas dropped by 29.88% to 892. Post‐mortem time was significantly lower during the restricted post‐mortem time protocols (24.2 ± 12.37 hours, p<0.05, t‐test). Interestingly, there was no significant difference of culture medium contamination rates between the two groups (Group I: 9,0%, n=115 versus Group II: 7.3%, n=65; Chi‐squared test). Conclusion Restriction of donor cornea acquisition time down to 24 hours seems to be without benefit regarding the contamination rates during corneal organ culture.