Purpose: To evaluate the effect on donor rim cultures and postoperative infections of doubling the povidone-iodine exposure time during corneal tissue recovery before its use in keratoplasty. Methods: Consecutive donor cornea recoveries were evaluated for positive donor corneal rim cultures and postoperative infections before and after a protocol change of doubling the exposure time of povidone-iodine during donor preparation. Results: In 631 consecutive cornea donor recoveries, 18 (2.9%) had positive fungal rim cultures and 41 (6.5%) had positive bacterial rim cultures. Three (0.48%) developed postoperative fungal infections, and no bacterial infections occurred. After doubling the povidone-iodine exposure time during the recovery process, 725 consecutive corneas were reviewed. Four (0.6%) had positive fungal rim cultures, and 29 (4.0%) had positive bacterial rim cultures. No postoperative fungal or bacterial infections occurred. No noticeable increase in epithelial toxicity developed between the 2 groups. Conclusions: Increasing the povidone-iodine exposure time during the donor cornea recovery process decreased the rate of positive donor corneal rim fungal cultures (P = 0.001), positive donor corneal rim bacterial cultures (P = 0.04), and postoperative fungal infections (P = 0.06).

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