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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Corneal Donor Tissue Preparation for Endothelial Keratoplasty
Published on: June 12, 2012
[Analysis of the transplanted corneas at Santa Casa de São Paulo Eye Bank]
Ronaldo Yuiti Sano1, Fabiana Tiemi Sano, Maria Cristina Nishiwaki Dantas
1Seção de Retina, Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. rysano@hotmail.com
Purpose:
To identify the donors' profile and evaluate the factors influencing the quality of the donated corneas in Santa Casa Eye Bank, from July, 2000 to January, 2004.
Methods:
Data from the charts of 151 patients submitted to penetrating keratoplasty, registered in Santa Casa Eye Bank, from July, 2000 to January 2004 resulted in 180 surgeries.
Results:
Mean age of the donors was 57.57 +/- 19.74 years old (varied from 9 months to 97 years old) and 54.44% were male. The cause of death was predominantly cardiovascular (50.55%), followed by consumptive diseases (17.77%), trauma (14.44%) and others (17.22%). Considering the quality of the cornea, there was no statistically significant difference among the three main groups of cause of death (p=0.527) and time from death to corneal preservation (p=0.053). There was a statistically significant difference between quality of donated corneas above 61 years old and other ages (p=0.037).
Conclusion:
The most frequent cause of death was cardiovascular, followed by pulmonary diseases and trauma. We could also note that factors inherent to donor like age (>60 years old) predisposed to a worse anatomical quality of the cornea and factors like cause of death and time between death and preservation did not influence the quality of the cornea.
