Statistics of eye collections

Our data show cause of death is relatively unimportant as a factor in determining if donor eyes will be used for corneal transplantation. Two factors that are important are age of donor and time of donation (weekday vs weekend). Cultures taken at time of enucleation are positive 50% of the time. Treatment with antibiotics will reduce this to 20% to 30%. Most organisms are considered nonpathogenic and probably not important, but 15% of positive cultures of eyes used for corneal transplantation (about 4% of eyes obtained) had potentially pathogenic organisms present.