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

Abstract

Organ Culture corneal storage offers an extended storage time and increased donor pool and tissue assessment opportunities. In September 2011, the Lions New South Wales Eye Bank (LNSWEB) moved from hypothermic storage to Organ Culture corneal storage. This study evaluates the impact of implementation of Organ Culture on donor eye retrieval and the corneal transplant waiting list over a 3 year period in NSW, Australia. Retrospective review of the LNSWEB data from September 2011 to August 2014. Tissue collection, waiting list and tissue utilization data were recorded. The data from September 2008 to August 2011 for Optisol-GS storage was used for comparison. The annual donor and cornea collection rate increased 35 % and 44 % respectively with Organ Culture compared to Optisol-GS storage. The utilization rate of corneal tissue increased from 73.4 % with hypothermic storage to 77.2 % with Organ Culture storage. The transplant wait list decreased by 77.3 % from September 2011 to August 2014 and correlated with the increased rate of corneal transplantation (r = -0.9381, p < 0.0001). No other factors impacting the wait list changed over this period. Corneas not used from either storage method were due to unacceptable endothelial cell density/viability. The contamination rate of corneas stored in Organ Culture medium was low at 1.74 %. The Organ Culture storage method increases the corneal donor pool available to Eye banks. The practical benefits of the extended storage time and increased donor assessment opportunities have directly led to an increase in corneal utilization rate and a significant decrease in recipient wait list time.

Diabetic complications in the cornea

“…A better model is represented by whole corneal organ culture that even allows for a successful corneal transplantation (Devasahayam et al, 2016). Using one of these models where the corneas are kept at the air-liquid interface and maintained at normal corneal temperature of around 35°C, we have successfully shown that organ-cultured corneas from DM and DR patients preserved the delayed wound healing and abnormal BM structure, proteinase and growth factor patterns that are seen in intact corneas from such patients (Kabosova et al, 2003; Ljubimov and Saghizadeh, 2015; Kramerov et al, 2016).…”

Mechanotransductive Differentiation of Hair Follicle Stem Cells Derived from Aged Eyelid Skin into Corneal Endothelial-Like Cells

“…Processing corneas from older donors cannot overcome this Christian Olszewski and Jessika Maassen contributed equally to this work. lack of donor tissue because the proportion of qualitatively adequate corneas decreases with donor age [10][11][12][13].…”

Overview of Short-Term and Intermediate-Term Corneal Storage Solution: Comparison of Clinical Outcomes and Need For Future Research

“…The endothelial layer integrity can be better maintained during organ culture because of periodic nutrient supplementation, and hence, the storage time of donor corneas is increased to 4 to 5 weeks with this method of preservation. 19,20 The clinical outcomes of keratoplasty using the donor corneas from hypothermic storage and organ culture techniques have been similar. 19 There are geographical differences in the preferred method of corneal preservation that are determined by several factors.…”