Investigation of Thickness and Endothelial profiles of Donor endothelial keratoplasty lenticules prepared from donated whole eyes post vitreous draw
Mahnaz Azani1 *, Mozhgan Rezaei Kanavi2 , Mohammad Mehdi Sadoughi1
- Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Ocular Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: To compare thickness and endothelial profiles of donor endothelial keratoplasty lenticules recovered following a vitreous draw by using a special eye bank method with those of lenticules prepared from control globes (no vitreous draw).
Methods: Eye banks records of Descemet stripping automated endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) lenticules that their corresponding eye balls had undergone vitreous draw before eye bank preparation of the precut tissue were retrospectively reviewed. The eye bank procedure for preparation of DSAEK lenticules from whole globes with prior vitreous draw included an extra step composed of reforming the whole eye via trans-optic nerve intravitreal injection of sterile normal saline followed by tight wrapping of the globe to obtain the proper intraocular pressure before dissection of the cornea. The corresponding thickness profiles obtained from Optical Coherence Tomography and the endothelial indices obtained from specular microscopy were compared between the DSAEK lenticules of prior vitreous draw and those without vitreous draw.
Donor endothelial keratoplasty lenticules prepared from donated whole eyes post vitreous draw in 58 donors (116 donor eyes) were compared with Lenticules prepared from fellow (control) eyes that did not have vitreous draw. The primary outcome measures are between-group comparisons of endothelial profile (endothelial cell density, hexagonality, coefficient of variation) and corneal thickness
Results: DSAEK lenticules from 115 donors were recruited in this study; 115 eyes of the corresponding donors had vitreous draw before DSAEK tissue preparation and the fellow eyes (115) had no vitreous draw before eye bank preparation of DSAEK tissue. There was no significant difference between two groups in terms of thickness profiles (P = 0.379), endothelial cell density (P = 0.986) and other endothelial indices. Post-DSAEK follow up in both groups revealed no difference in the rate of failed graft requiring repeat DSAEK between the two groups (3 cases in each group).
Conclusion: Our results suggest that with the method used at the Central Eye Bank of Iran for preparation of DSAEK lenticules from eye globes with prior vitreous draw, there is no measurable effect on thickness and endothelial profiles of the prepared DSAEK lenticules.
