Profile of donors and corneal tissue obtained through hospital cornea retrieval programme in a recently established eye bank of a tertiary care teaching hospital of Eastern India.

Abstract

There is a global need for quality eye banking practices and sensitization of primary care physicians toward corneal donation. To evaluate performance of a recently established eye bank (EB) and quality of corneas obtained, and identify areas of improvement during procurement and utilization of donor corneas. This retrospective observational study is based on records of corneas collected through hospital cornea retrieval programme (HRCP) in the EB of a tertiary care institution during the first 2 years of its establishment. Data on demographic characteristics of donors, death-preservation interval, specular microscopy parameters of corneas, indications for utilization, and reasons for non-utilization of corneas were collected. Means, standard deviation, range, frequencies, and proportions were analyzed. Spearman's correlation coefficient and Kruskal-Wallis test were applied taking <i>P</i> < 0.05 as significant. The EB retrieved 54 corneas from 27 donors with mean age 42.3 ± 24.2 years. All tissues were preserved in Cornisol®. Majority (50%) of transplantable tissues had an endothelial cell density (ECD) between 2,000 and 2,500 cells/mm². ECD decreased significantly with increasing age (Spearman's ρ -0.747, <i>P</i> < 0.001; Kruskal-Wallis <i>P</i> < 0.001). Overall utilization rate of tissues was 87.04% (47/54), and utilizable corneas (50/54, 92.6%) were mainly used for optical purposes (34/50, 68%). Successful HCRP of the recently established EB has shown considerable promise in terms of quality and utilisation of corneas. There is need for active involvement of primary care physicians in contributing to increasing voluntary eye donation through awareness, advocacy, and social mobilization.