CORNEAL GRAFT STERILITY AND ENDOTHELIAL Q UALITY DURING ORGAN-CULTUREAT -DEGREES-C(31)

Over a 10-month-period, 59 corneas were organ-cultured at + 31-degrees -C and 7 were preserved at + 4-degrees-C. Among the 59 organ-cultured corneas, 41 % (24) were grafted and 25 % (15) developed an infection d uring preservation. At the time of surgery, preservation medium and sc leral rim were tested for microbiology. Infection during preservation was bacterial (80 %, 12/15) and fungal (20 %, 3/12). Scleral rims were sterile in 96 % (24/25) of the grafted corneas preserved at + 31-degr ees-C but 34 % (2/6) at + 4-degrees-C (p < 0.01). Preservation media w ere sterile in 100 % (24124) of organ-cultures at + 31-degrees-C but i n 83 % cases (5.6) of preservations at + 4-degrees-C (NS). The percent age of endothelial dead cells increased with postmortem enucleation de lay (r = 0.43; p = 0.03). The average endothelial cell loss during org an-culture was 11.2 % (+/- 10.4). It correlated with endothelial densi ty (r = 0.42; p = 0.04) and with percentage of endothelial dead cells (r = 0.43 ; p = 0.04) after enucleation. Organ-culture at + 31-degrees -C was able to assess graft sterility in almost 100 % of the cases but corneas are lost due to infection. Graft sterility is not usually pos sible with preservation at + 4-degrees-C.