Evaluation of quality and utility rate of donor corneal tissue received at tertiary eye care center

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate quality and utility rate of donor corneal tissue received at tertiary eye care center. Materials and Methods: All tissues retrieved by our eye bank from January 2012 to December 2015 were evaluated. Donor age, lens status, utilization of the tissue for optical transplantation, therapeutic transplantation, or nonclinical purposes (e.g., research, training/discarded) and causes of using tissue for nonclinical purposes were noted. A careful chart review was performed to determine the precise cause of exclusion of each tissue from transplantation. Results: A total of 413, 454, 430, and 412 corneas were retrieved in the years 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. In study duration, 54% of tissues received were from donors aged more than 70 years, and 49.5% tissues were pseudophakic. The mean corneal utility rate of our study was 42%. In the year 2013, corneal utility rate was least (33.30%), when we received maximum number of pseudophakic and elderly (>70 years) donor eyes. Most common cause of clinical nonutility of the tissue was poor quality (37.3%) followed by medical history of the donor (15.4%) and safety reasons (2%). Conclusion: Retrieval of more number of pseudophakic and older donor eyes with poor quality lead to relatively lower tissue utility rate in our study. Eye donation awareness programs targeting multispecialty hospitals or trauma centers can be more rewarding to receive better quality younger donor eyes