Completed Cornea Donor Study finds donor age not a predictor of survival for most PK grafts

Findings from 10 years of follow-up in the Cornea Donor Study support the conclusion that donor age should not be an important factor in most penetrating keratoplasty (PK) transplants for endothelial disease, said Mark J. Mannis, MD, at the 5th EuCornea Congress.

The primary objective of the double-masked, multicenter study was to determine whether PK success, when the procedure is performed for endothelial dysfunction in patients aged 40 to 80 years with a moderate risk for failure, was related to donor age.  It included 1090 eligible patients enrolled from January, 2000 to August, 2002, operated on by 105 surgeons at 80 sites. Donor corneas were from patients ages 12 to 75 years and with an endothelial cell density of 2300 to 3300 cells/mm2; about two-thirds of grafted corneas were from donors <66 years old.

The results showed that compared with transplants from donors 34 to 71 years, those from donors 12 to 34 years had a slightly higher success rate while those from donors 72 to 75 years may have a slightly lower success rate.