Thirty years of cornea cultivation: long-term experience in a single eye bank

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: To evaluate donor demographics, trends in donor tissue procurement and tissue storage over a long period. Methods: A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive analysis was undertaken of data from the Hamburg Eye Bank Data Base (HEB-DB) that had been collected between 1981 and 2010. Data on 54 parameters of cornea donors [including clinical history, age, death cause, gender and death-to-explantation interval (DEI)] and of cultivated corneas (endothelial quality and development in culture, cultivation period, microbiological contamination) were retrieved. These data were analysed statistically, focusing on the historical development of the eye bank. Results: At the time of retrieval (June 2010), the HEB-DB contained data on 10 943 corneas (5503 donors). Most donors were men (65%) and had died from cardiopulmonary (n = 801) ⁄ cerebral (n = 261) failure or as the result of a polytraumatic accident ⁄ suicide (n = 602). Within these years, donor age, DEI and storage time increased. The percentage of stored corneas suitable for transplantation displayed a variable but increasing trend; in 2007, almost 75% of the stored corneas were transplanted. Between 1995 and June 2010, the median microbiological contamination rate was 5.3%. A change in the procurement procedure from enucleation to corneoscleral explantation in 2008 led to a briefly increased contamination rate. Conclusion: Donor demographic data run parallel to the general demographic development. Our analysis indicates a dynamic development of the eye bank over the last 30 years and emphasizes the need for an active quality management in coping with the challenges of modern eye banking.

Analysis of the cornea donor data: an eye bank study

“…However, many studies have reported that corneas from advanced-age donors can also be sometimes used for transplantation, and thus donor age does not affect donor survival. Linke et al [17] showed that 32.1% of corneas from donors aged over 80 years met the appropriate criteria for transplantation. Patel et al [19] similarly demonstrated that 80% of corneas from advanced age donors had suitable standards for transplantation.…”

“…Our results did not reveal any significant difference between both sexes. Previous studies have shown a significant impact of time from donor death to cornea harvesting on endothelial count [17,27]. EBAA recommends cornea harvesting within 20 hours in those aged less than 50 years, and within 18 hours in those aged equal to or greater than 50 years of age [20].…”

Implementation of Organ Culture storage of donor corneas: a 3 year study of its impact on the corneal transplant wait list at the Lions New South Wales Eye Bank

“…Gavrilov and co-authors advocate an age limit of 80 or less, death to tissue retrieval time of less than 6 h and tissue retrieval to processing time of less than 24 h to minimize the percentage of discarded corneas (Gavrilov et al 2010). Linke et al cite the main factor in their comparatively low utilization rate of 43.5 % being a required minimum endothelial cell count of 2000 cells/mm 2 , higher than the requirement of most other countries (Linke et al 2013). However, with a minimum viable endothelial density of 2200 cells/mm 2 and viability of greater than 70 %, we still achieved a high utilization rate.…”

Deceased tissue donor serology and molecular testing for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses: a lack of cadaveric validated tests

“…Hemolysis mechanism interference is characterized as being not only from the hemoglobin but also the intracellular constituents, which are released into the serum or plasma during the hemolysis process (Dimeski et al 2012). Tissue donors usually succumb to Cardiorespiratory arrest (Linke et al 2013;Shiratori et al 2011), which is a factor that seems to increase blood hemolysis. In this study, only CLIA and ECLIAs had 100 % of IFUs which contained detailed information for hemolysis interference in blood test (Tables 1, 2, 3, 4).…”

“…Because of this report, the optimization of donor screening is being required worldwide (Ison et al 2011;Lai et al 2013;Len et al 2012). Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) currently mandates that all tissue donors have to be screened for anti-HIV 1/2, anti-HBc, HBsAg and anti-HCV using ANVISA-licensed serological blood donor tests (Brasil 2008(Brasil , 2009.…”