The interview with the donor's family before postmortem cornea procurement

Purpose, Asking the family of a deceased patient to consider eye donation i s one of the most difficult aspects of the donation process. The aim of thi s prospective study was to describe the content of interviews with the fami lies of potential donors and to analyze their reactions to improve the proc ess of eye donation. Methods. We consecutively met with 151 families of sui table corneal donors at the Rouen University Hospital. All interviews with donor families were analyzed using a preestablished questionnaire. Results, In only 17.9% of cases was the family aware of the potential donor's last will. In 77.7% of these cases, the patient wished to donate. Procurement ra te was 71.5%. This acceptance was mostly facilitated by the awareness and m otivation of the hospital staff, the experience of the physician, and the 1 3.3-h period of time allowed after the donor's death. The commitment on the part of the ophthalmologist to carry out optimal anatomical restoration wa s a very important point for 32% of families who accepted donation. Twenty- one percent of families asked for a delay for reflection. This delay helped to obtain a positive response in 72.7% of cases and even sometimes helped families to reconsider a previously negative position (14% of initial refus als). Conclusion, We demonstrate that a high positive response (71.5%) can be obtained from the donor's family when a trained and motivated group mana ges the post-mortem cornea donation request.