title: Donor cornea procurement: six-year review of the role of the eye bank in South Australia.
abstract: The Lions Eye Bank of South Australia was established six years ago and has collected corneas from 790 donors. The consent rate is currently 82% of requests made. Two-thirds of donors have been male, with mean donor age/year varying from 54 to 64 years (range two to 93 years). Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, trauma and haemorrhage account for 80% of all donor deaths. Mean death to enucleation time is five hours. Corneas assessed as being of excellent or very good quality are released preferentially from the bank; those with central endothelial cell counts of less than 1500 cells/mm2 are discarded. Fewer than 1% of donors have returned a positive result for HIV or hepatitis B. Of the 1580 corneas collected by the bank, 863 (55%) have been used for transplantation with a primary non-function rate of 0.46%. The evolving policies, logistics of operation and methodologies employed by the bank are described in detail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Badenoch
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Wedding
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Alfrich
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sawyer
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Noack
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Johnstone
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zilm
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Coster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D005125:Eye Banks / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D011641:Public Relations; D014015:Tissue Banks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement