title: The influence of donor factors on corneal organ culture contamination.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the contamination rate and the corresponding spectrum of microbes and to identify donor risk factors for corneal organ culture contaminations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 3306 organ-cultured donor corneas were included in the study. We performed a retrospective database analysis to evaluate donor factors such as gender, age, death-to-explantation interval (DEI), procurement site and cause of death and to determine their influence on donor cornea contaminations. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for each factor.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall contamination rate was 7.8% (n = 259). Younger donor age (OR: 2.2, p = 0.003, chi-squared test), a DEI of more than 24 hr (OR: 1.6, p < 0.001), hospitalization prior to death (OR: 2.2, p < 0.001) and death caused by sepsis (OR: 2.7, p < 0.001) were associated with an increased risk of contamination, whereas donor gender did not have an effect on donor cornea contaminations. The most frequently isolated microbes were Enterococci (19%), Staphylococci (10.8%) and Candida (37.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study helps to estimate the contamination risk of a cultured cornea based on specific donor factors. However, donors with risk factors should not be generally excluded from cornea donation. Further studies including antibiograms might clarify whether a change in the antibiotic composition of the culture medium would be useful to deal with the increasing number of multi-resistant microbes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9793-6854
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gruenert
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Geerling
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Fuchsluger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002452:Cell Count; D003315:Cornea / Q000382:microbiology*; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D003470:Culture Media / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005125:Eye Banks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015818:Eye Infections, Bacterial / Q000382:microbiology; D015821:Eye Infections, Fungal / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005658:Fungi / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media
keywords: corneal donor; corneal organ culture; culture medium contamination; eye banking