Flex center method versus center method for endothelial corneal evaluation in eye banking: a comparative analysis

Specular microscopy can provide a non-invasive morphological analysis of the cornea endothelial cell layer. A variety of analysis programs are available to determine corneal endothelial quality. The flex-center endothelial analysis method (Konan Inc) is a newer technique including the outermost digitized cells and thus increases the number of cells for analysis. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the new flex-center method, increases the possibilities of corneal endothelium evaluation before implants. For this purpose 67 corneas were studied by both methods at the Eye Bank of the Tissue Establishment of Córdoba. Although we have found differences in the resulting of number of cells in the area analysed, no significant differences were found with respect to the endothelial cell count, coefficient of variation cell area, and the percentage of hexagonal cells recorded. Based on this data, both methods can be used satisfactorily in eye banking.