Usability of donor corneas harvested from the deceased having septicaemia or malignancy.
CONTEXT
There is a wide gap between supply and demand in relation to healthy corneal grafts. Specific contraindications like infection and malignancy lead to non-usage of many grafts, despite the fact that deeming graft unhealthyness for these two contraindications is debatable.


AIMS
The present study was conceptualised to assess if corneas donated from the deceased with septicaemia or malignancy can be deemed fit for implantation.


SETTINGS AND DESIGN
Retrospective histopathological and microbiological analysis of cadaveric donor corneas.


METHODS AND MATERIAL
76 donor corneas from 38 patients rejected for corneal transplantation in view of patient having septicaemia or malignany were analysed for pathological and microbiological workup, to look for dissemination of disease within corneal tissue.Pathology workup included gross and microscopic histopathological evaluation of tissue.Microbiology workup included Grams stain and KOH with calcoflour mount, culture in blood agar, chocolate agar, Sabourauds dextrose agar and Mc Conkeys broth.


RESULTS
46 donor corneas of 23 septicaemia patients when evaluated showed presence of culture positive infection in 18 patients (78.2%).Histopathological examination done for 30 donor corneas from 15 cancer patients did not reveal presence of tumour cells in the specimen. Corneas of 2 of cancer patients having septicaemia revealed growth on cultures.


CONCLUSIONS
Corneal tissues harvested from septicaemia donors showed significantly higher incidence of corneal contamination, confirming their unsuitability for usageHowever, there was no incidence of tumour transmission in corneal tissues of the patients with malignancies, suggesting that they can be considered for ophthalmic purpose.