Specific demographic factors could predict deceased potential cornea donors

Abstract

Compared with evident cornea donors (ECDs), deceased potential cornea donors (DPCDs) have no obvious donor identifications to reference, which causes many eligible cornea tissues to be wasted. The demographic characteristics of DPCDs might be different from those of ECDs owing to the following different features: donation consent provided by relatives and willingness to donate before death. Thus, the aim of this study is to reveal the demographic characteristics of DPCDs by comparing DPCDs and ECDs.The demographic factors of 138 donors (both DPCDs and ECDs) were collected from the Beijing Tongren Hospital Eye Bank database and analyzed. To differentiate DPCDs from ECDs using the above-mentioned features, we interviewed the relatives of the donors by telephone. The relatives’ attitudes toward cornea donation and their suggestions for our donation service were also acquired during the interview. Two logistic regressions were performed to reveal the demographic factors influencing the 2 features and indicate DPCDs.The donors had certain demographic characteristics (elderly, secondary, or tertiary education level, central district resident), and the most frequent cause of death for the donors was a malignant tumor (n = 56, 43.1%). All the relatives had positive attitudes toward cornea donations, and they hoped to increase publicity efforts to encourage more people to donate and establish more convenient and efficient access for cornea donation. In univariate regressions, age (P = .004, >50 years: odds ratio [OR] = 6.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.82–26.05), marital status (P = .043, divorced: OR = 9.00,95% CI: 1.33–60.80) significantly influenced relative consent, whereas age (P = .001, >50 years: OR = 15.00, 95% CI: 3.00–74.98), and family address (P = .001, central district: OR = 1) were significant factors influencing the willingness to donate before death. In multivariate regression, age (P = .021, >50 years: OR = 8.14, 95% CI: 1.37–48.41) was the only significant factor influencing relative consent. Similarly, age (P = .02, >50 years: OR = 7.55, 95% CI: 1.21–47.25) was the only factor influencing willingness to donate before death.In conclusion, specific demographic factors could indicate DPCDs and might reveal directions and methods for cornea donation coordination in the future.

Características sociodemográficas y cultura de la donación de órganos y tejidos en usuarios del Hospital General Regional No. 17 del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social en Cancún, Quintana Roo

“…cuanto a la edad, Liu y su equipo 22 encontraron que la aceptación de donación aumenta si la edad de quien da el consentimiento es mayor a 50 años, hecho que coincide con lo observado en este estudio, con aceptación de donación de hasta 100% en adultos de edad avanzada; sin embargo, no tuvo significancia estadística. Aunque también se observó que los solteros aceptarían donar más, este valor no fue estadísticamente significativo p < 0.05.…”

Mechanism and treatment of secondary glaucoma after corneal transplantation: a review

“…Keratopathy is one of the major blinding eye diseases nowadays and is the second leading blinding eye disease after cataract in China. At present, there are about 4 million patients with blindness caused by keratopathy in China, and more than 100,000 new cases are added each year ( 1 ). Corneal transplantation is the most effective treatment to restore vision or control keratopathy in the affected eye.…”