Human cadaver corneal thinning for experimental refractive surgery

Human cadaver eyes can be dehydrated by prolonged elevation of intraocular pressure (three to five hours) or by hyperosmotic Dextran over a 20- to 30-minute period. We divided four pairs of donor eyes into two groups (A and B) and dehydrated four corneas by each method. After corneal thinning to 500 to 600 microns, central corneal pachymetry was measured every ten minutes during the rehydration period for one hour, with each cornea pair being moistened at a different rate (every 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2.5 minutes or 5 minutes). The resultant increase in central corneal thickness noted by change in pachymetry (delta P) ranged from 12.4% to 14.7% over one hour between the two groups. delta P did not differ significantly between groups A and B, regardless of the varying rate of balanced salt solution irrigation of the corneas. Thus, it appears that either method of corneal dehydration provides comparable stability of corneal thinning for at least one hour to allow consistent corneal dynamics for experimental refractive surgery.