The progress of cornea donation and transplantation in France

Purpose. To study the progress of cornea donation and transplantation in Fr ance. Methods. A questionnaire was sent, every year since 1994, to all the heads of ophthalmology departments in public and private hospitals. Results , Response rates of almost 100% were obtained each year. In 1997, 153 hospi tals carried out cornea harvesting or transplantation. The number of cornea donations decreased sharply between 1991 (3,774) and 1993 (2,383). Donatio ns then increased slowly to reach 3,591 in 1997 [60 per million population (pmp)]. Cornea-transplantation activity followed the same pattern, decreasi ng from 3,843 transplants in 1991 to 3,210 (54 pmp) in 1997. In 1997, 73% o f cornea transplants took place in 90 public hospitals, and only 27% took p lace in 28 private hospitals. The number of imported corneas has increased, particularly in 1997, in which 764 corneas were imported (24% of the corne as trans planted). Ninety-two percent of imported corneas were grafted in p rivate hospitals. The estimate of the number of patients registered on loca l waiting lists increased to 8,303 at the end of 1997. There was a weak cor relation between the number of corneas transplanted and the number of patie nts on local waiting lists by hospital (r = 0.65; p < 0.0001). Conclusion, The rate of corneal grafts in France is similar to that in other European c ountries, but the number of patients on waiting lists is high. Careful thou ght and effort should be applied to increasing the level of corneal donatio n and harvesting and reducing waiting lists in France to levels similar to those in other European countries.