Techniques for the preservation of enucleated animal eyes in surgical training

The main problem with using enucleated animal eyes in surgical training is that they remain fresh for such a short time. We describe a simple technique to preserve them by replacing the aqueous humor and part of the vitreous with another substance. We used 18 eyes of nine dogs (nine for the study and nine as controls), and three substances (2% methylcellulose, silicone oil, and gelatin). The methylcellulose group had the best results (including long-lasting mydriasis), preserving the eyes in which it was used in optimal surgical condition for up to 8 days, twice as long as the eyes in the control group (P less than .005).