title: Thirty years of cornea cultivation: long-term experience in a single eye bank.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate donor demographics, trends in donor tissue procurement and tissue storage over a long period.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive analysis was undertaken of data from the Hamburg Eye Bank Data Base (HEB-DB) that had been collected between 1981 and 2010. Data on 54 parameters of cornea donors [including clinical history, age, death cause, gender and death-to-explantation interval (DEI)] and of cultivated corneas (endothelial quality and development in culture, cultivation period, microbiological contamination) were retrieved. These data were analysed statistically, focusing on the historical development of the eye bank.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the time of retrieval (June 2010), the HEB-DB contained data on 10 943 corneas (5503 donors). Most donors were men (65%) and had died from cardiopulmonary (n = 801)/cerebral (n = 261) failure or as the result of a polytraumatic accident/suicide (n = 602). Within these years, donor age, DEI and storage time increased. The percentage of stored corneas suitable for transplantation displayed a variable but increasing trend; in 2007, almost 75% of the stored corneas were transplanted. Between 1995 and June 2010, the median microbiological contamination rate was 5.3%. A change in the procurement procedure from enucleation to corneoscleral explantation in 2008 led to a briefly increased contamination rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Donor demographic data run parallel to the general demographic development. Our analysis indicates a dynamic development of the eye bank over the last 30 years and emphasizes the need for an active quality management in coping with the challenges of modern eye banking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. slinke@uke.uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Stephan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Linke
authors.forename: Mau-Thek
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Eddy
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bednarz
authors.forename: Otto H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Fricke
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wulff
authors.forename: Ann-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hassenstein
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klemm
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Püschel
authors.forename: Gisbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Olaf J C
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Hellwinkel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D002452:Cell Count; D003315:Cornea; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005125:Eye Banks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000639:trends*; D055815:Young Adult