SUMMARY
Purpose:
Evaluate the corneal donation profile at Hospital São Paulo Eye Bank.
Material and Methods:
Retrospective evaluation of donor records from January 1993 until December 1995, regarding the number and local of donations, the type of eye removal, the use of the tissue, donor age and serologic status, cause of death, removal time and preservation.
Results:
The eye bank collected 1904 corneas and the majority (96. 5%) was enucleated. Donation rate decreased during the studied period of time. The percentage of used corneas was 49.36% in 1993, 51.72% in 1994 and 49.8% in 1995. The cornea evaluation at slit lamp was the main cause of unused tissue. More than 50% of donors were over sixty years old. The seropositive rales for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and Syphilis ranged from 21.1% to 25.3% during the period of study. Regarding the death cause, cardiologic and respiratory diseases, followed by accidents were the most frequent. Enucleation was realized mainly between 2 to 6 of corneas used in patients of the hospital were 72.7% in 1993, 76.1% in 1994 and 77.4% in 1995.
Conclusions:
It is important to make the population realizes that donation is a necessity. Efforts from the Eye Banks must be dane trying to improve the quality of tissue donated in our country.