Fresh and Cultured Corneal Grafts Compared by Post‐operative Thickness and Endothelial Cell Density

Abstract

Thirty-nine corneas were removed within 6 h post mortem and stored in a moist chamber at 4 degrees C before grafting. The mean donor age was 33 years and the average time between death and grafting was 11 h. Thirty cadaver corneas were selected after trypane blue staining and cultured at 31 degrees C for 24 h before grafting. The mean donor age was 61 years and the mean time between death and culture was 18 h. During the first 10 postoperative days fresh grafts were thinner than cultured grafts. One year after the transplantation the two groups did not differ significantly in regard to the clinical result, corneal thickness, or endothelial cell loss. This indicates that corneas from old donors with extended post mortem time can be used for transplantation after individual evaluation and corneal culture.

Long Term Results of Corneal Grafting in Keratoconus

“…Most of the donor corneas were fresh tissue, although a few were organ cultured as described by Sperling et al (1981). All operations were 7.0 mm penetrating transplantations.…”

Influencing factors on the suitability of organ-cultured corneas

“…The initial description of the organ culture technique and evaluation of its effects on the corneal tissue was reported in the seventies by Summerlin et al 1 Following this initial description, repair of the corneal endothelium during organ culture was described by Dougman et al 2 After good clinical results of organ-cultured corneal grafts obtained from old donors were reported by Sperling et al, 3 most European eye banks have progressively adopted this method for corneal tissue storage before transplantation. The criteria for tissue selection before transplantation have been described, which include assessment of the corneal endothelium during storage.…”

Graft survival and risk factors of penetrating keratoplasty for microbial keratitis

“…The surgical technique applied was as previously described (Sperling et al 1981), except for 2 cases where interrupted sutures were used. When neces- sary the technique was modified to loosen anterior synechiae, to clear inflammatory debris from the anterior chamber or vitreous, or to ensure that the wound edge was positioned in healthy tissue.…”