Dr.Amit Raj, R12161
Purpose – To study the demographics of corneal donors and donor-related factors that affect the utilisation of cornea.
Methods – We analysed past records of Eye Bank linked to a tertiary hospital in northern India from November 2000 to October 2016 with respect to number of eye donations per year, age, sex, cause of death, rural or urban background of the patient, source of donation, place of eye donation, time gap between time of death and enucleation and utilisation of corneal tissues.
Results – Number of corneas collected during first 6 years was 200, 541 in next 5 years and 905 in last 5 years. Mean age of donors was 63.2 ± 19.5 years. Forty two percent donations were from hospital. Usability rate was 56.7%, out of which only 26.5% were used for Optical Penetrating Keratoplasty (OPK). Usability rate was 66.5% in first 6 years, 65.4% in next 5 and 46.9% in the last 5 years.
Conclusions – Myths and beliefs prevalent in our society deter people from donating eyes freely.
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