title: Obtaining cornea donation consent by telephone.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cornea donation process comes up against difficulties in obtaining families' consent. A face-to-face interview is often not possible for logistical reasons. We carried out a prospective study of the effectiveness of telephone contact in obtaining donation consent.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consent was obtained by a single, nonmedical, hospital coordinator. If a face-to-face interview was not possible, a telephone interview was conducted using a standardized procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over a 21-month period, 334 families were contacted, either in a face-to-face interview (142, 42.5%) or by telephone (192, 57.5%). Donation consent was obtained in 66.5% of cases, 106 times by telephone and 116 times in face-to-face interview. The acceptance rate was 55.2% by telephone and 81.6% face to face (P<0.001). In total, 47.7% of the cornea recovery consents were obtained after telephone interview.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Telephone interview is an effective method for obtaining consent to cornea donation. Although the acceptance rate using this method is lower than by face-to-face interview, using the telephone should not be overlooked as this enabled procurement of nearly half the corneas in our hospital.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology Bellevue Hospital, Saint-Etienne, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gain
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thuret
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Loup Pugniet
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rizzi
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Acquart
authors.forename: Jean Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Le Petit
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maugery
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013689:Telephone; D014019:Tissue Donors; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration*