Posters

Comparison of primary corneoscleral rim excision and enucleation in eye banking after 5 years of experience

Poster Details

First Author: F.Filev GERMANY

Co Author(s):    O. Hellwinkel   M. Eddy   S. Linke        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Using the Hamburg eye bank data base this retrospective study compares both techniques with regard to the consent rate of donor relatives, time of explantation, cultivation period, endothelial cell density (ECD) and the impact of different harvest staff on ECD

Setting:

A retrospective study using the data of the Hamburg Eye Bank data base

Methods:

A retrospective study comparing the effect of the method of tissue harvest on endothelial cell density, consent rate of donor relatives, time of explantation and cultivation period. Descriptive statistics comprised means, standard deviations, medians and inter-quantiles. Depending on Gaussian or Non-Gaussian distribution patterns of the results, explorative statistics were done applying parametric (Student-T or ANOVA) or non-parametric (Mann-Whitney-U, Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis) tests. Significance level was set at a p-value < 0.05.

Results:

Our study indicates an increased consent rate of relatives through this less invasive harvest method, which helps to obtain more donor corneas, because of psychological and ethicial reasons. Our study result presented that the average ECD compared to enucleation was lower, especially in the time of introduction of the new procedure. But as shown in other studies no clinical relevance could be demonstrated. Over the time of using this procedure improved with ascending ECD. A detail analysis of all explantation staff showed that more performed harvests in general the merrier the ECD of corneas. Frequent practice assumed to improve explantation skills with less traumatic injury.

Conclusions:

In situ explantation performed by experienced staff is the better alternative for corneal harvest due to higher consent rate allowing for more tissue donors. FINANCIAL INTEREST: NONE