Two treatments of eye bank donor corneas

The many published studies on sterile procedures used by eye banks have included none until now on ways to optimize sterile handling of corneas procured in the morgues of forensic pathologists. The present study sought to discover if fewer positive cultures would be reported at the time of surgery from corneas which had been treated with an entire bottle of antibiotic (10 ml), as opposed to the more usual method of instilling 10 to 12 drops of antibiotic prior to the corneal excision. The result showed a marginal improvement of 3.1% fewer positive cultures when the entire bottle of antibiotic was used. The findings bolstered the theory that thorough and vigorous washing of the conjunctival sac prior to corneal removal is important and that positive cultures are no more likely when the cornea is shipped away from the eye bank than when used locally.