4214 Senescence of corneal endothelial cells

Logistic regression methods were used to analyse the influence of donor and storage factors on the quality of c~meas stored by organ culture in the Bristol eve bank in 1991. Averaae donor a(18 was 57 vears fsd 22. n=2770) -and time from death to en~cleation v& 8 hours (&I 7, n&782): Corneas were placed into organ culture within 27 houra (sd 10, n+2550) of donor death and were stored for 22 days (sd 7, n=2716). Preliminary results ,showed that 126 of 2744 corneas (4.5%) we10 discarded through contamination. The risk of contamination increased with inauasing death to enucleation time (p<O.O37), but corneas from CVA donors were less likely to be contaminated (p<O.O03). Overall, 27% of corneas wwre not suitable for PKP because of endotheliel defects. Corneas storud for more than 4 weeks or corneas from donors over 80 years old were less likely to be suitable for PKP (both pcO.0001). But the likelihood of onneas having high endothelial cell densities (~2500 cells/mm2) was reduced with donors over 20 years old (p<O.OOl), with storage times more than 2 weeks (p<O.O04), or when corneas came from donors that died of cancer (p<O.O4) or respiratory disease (p<O.O20). Corneas from CVA donors, however, were more likely to be suitable for PKP (P<O.O05). Analyses such as this are important for monitoring donor procurement practices and the efficacy of eye banking techniques.