Utility of Donor Corneoscleral Rim Cultures Performed Routinely Following Penetrating Keratoplasty

Thiagarajan, M. and Hossain, Parwez (2008) Utility of Donor Corneoscleral Rim Cultures Performed Routinely Following Penetrating Keratoplasty. Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology, 36 (suppl 1), A138. (doi:10.1111/j.1442-9071.2008.01748.x).

Abstract

Purpose: To identify whether positive donor corneoscleral rim culture is associated with post-keratoplasty ocular infection.
Method: A retrospective study based on the bacterial microbiology culture data for all donor corneoscleral rims sent between 1999 and 2006 following keratoplasty at a university hospital in the UK. The sample size was 111 corneoscleral rims. This has been the routine practice to monitor sterility.
Results: The recipient donor cornea had a mean age of 78.3 years, with a range of 15 to 92 years, and a sex ratio of 41.7% males and 58.3% females. The corneal grafts took place between June 1999 and March 2006, with mean corneal graft size of 6.6 mm diameter and a range of 3 to 12 mm. The corneal donor age had a mean of 61.6 years and range of 12 to 97 years, with the death to enucleation time having a mean of 15 hours, with a range of 3 to 33 hours and a mean total donor corneal storage time of 21 days, with a range of 13 to 32 days. Positive bacterial cultures were reported in 5 donor corneoscleral rims, which were all found to have a corneal storage time greater than or equal to 15 days and death to enucleation time greater than or equal to 7 hours. No positive cultures were related to post-kerato-plasty infectious episodes and similarly no post-keratoplasty infectious episodes were related to positive cultures.
Conclusion: This study shows that donor corneal rim cultures are not useful for assisting with treating post-operative ocular infection as none of those with suspected post-keratoplasty ocular infection had a positive donor corneoscleral rim culture, and conversely none of those with a positive donor corneoscleral rim cultures had an ocular infection.

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Contributors

Author: Parwez Hossain

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