[Evaluation of the quality of donor corneas in relation to the age of donor and cause of death].

PURPOSE To analyze the quality of the corneas evaluated by slit lamp examination in the Eye Bank of the Hospital de Clínicas UFPR and its relation to donor age and cause of death. METHODS Analysis of 492 corneas, evaluated in BTO HC-UFPR between August 2006 to August 2008. Each cornea was classified regarding the quality as: very good, good, regular and bad; and according to clarity, epithelial defect, stromal edema, Descemet's folds, stromal opacity, corneal scarring, endothelial density and guttata. RESULTS The mean donor age was 42.74 years (sd=17.77 years). Among the causes of death, trauma was the most common with 46.18%, followed by cardiovascular causes with 41.86%. In relation to the cornea, 57.11% were classified as 'good', followed by 20.73% as 'regular', 16.87% as 'very good' and 5.28% as 'bad'. With the application of statistical tests based on ordinal regression model, trauma deaths corneas tend to be better, as well as those of younger patients. CONCLUSIONS Statistically, the corneas from younger donors tend to have better graduations in the assessment, as well as the corneas from donors dead by trauma that tend to have better quality when compared to corneas from donors dead by cardiovascular and other systemic diseases.