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Updated: Jul 29, 2025
Murine Corneal Transplantation: A Model to Study the Most Common Form of Solid Organ Transplantation
Published on: November 17, 2014
Risk assessment of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in corneal transplantation
Jeffrey Desilets1, Abhiniti Mittal1, John A Sellick2,3
1Ross Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Purpose:
While corneal transplantation is known to have a potential risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD), the magnitude of this risk has not been quantified.
Observations:
A case report is presented of a 73 year-old man with a penetrating keratoplasty graft from corneal tissue that was recalled after transplantation due to risk of vCJD because it was later discovered that the donor had traveled to the United Kingdom (UK). Probabilities of vCJD transmission were extrapolated using Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) mortality (incidence) rate, all-cause death rate, and rate of recovery for intended transplantation.
Conclusions:
An overestimate of the risk of transplanting a cornea infected with vCJD in 2018 was 1 in 940,000. The true risk of vCJD transmission would be even lower due to an incomplete infectivity rate. We conclude that the risk of transmission of latent vCJD by corneal transplantation from a donor who traveled to the UK from 1980 to 1996 is exceedingly low.
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