Descemet's Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) is a form of corneal transplantation in which only a single cell layer, the corneal endothelium, along with its basement membrane (Descemet's membrane) is introduced onto the recipient's posterior stroma(3). Unlike Descemet's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK), where additional donor stroma is introduced, no unnatural stroma-...

PURPOSE To evaluate donor demographics, trends in donor tissue procurement and tissue storage over a long period. METHODS A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive analysis was undertaken of data from the Hamburg Eye Bank Data Base (HEB-DB) that had been collected between 1981 and 2010. Data on 54 parameters of cornea donors [including clinical history, age, death cause, gender and death-to-...

PURPOSE The Minnesota Grading System (MGS) is a method to evaluate human eye bank eyes and determine the level of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), by using criteria and definitions from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). METHODS Donor eyes (108 pairs) from the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank were cut circumferentially at the pars plana to remove the anterior segment. A 1000 +/- 2.5-mi...

Shortage of corneal grafts is common in many countries. The method presented here has been developed to relieve this situation and make it easier, especially from the psychological point of view, to obtain a license for excising corneas from cadavers. An 11 mm. corneal button is excised from the donor eye in situ with a Draeger electric rotor trephine and the donor eyes remain apparently norma...

In the rabbit, cryoextraction of the lens and subsequent storage in Tyrode's solution did not alter the Na,K-ATPase activity from that determined in immediately excised rabbit lenses. Similarly, the procedures employed with the rabbit eye to simulate collection and storage of normal human eyes (eye banking) had no effect upon the Na,K-ATPase activity of the lens. These results permitted the inv...

There are several eye fields in the primate frontal cortex. The number and location of these oculomotor control zones remain controversial, especially in the human brain. In the monkey, the frontal eye field (FEF) is located in the rostral bank of the arcuate sulcus at approximately the level of the posterior end of the sulcus principalis, the supplementary eye field (SEF) is located on the dor...

Organ retrieval provides a service to both recipients and donor families. Many patients and their families wish to donate organs at the time of death and eye donation is rarely contraindicated. Corneal transplantation is a commonly performed procedure in Canada and is done either to restore sight or eye integrity. Corneal scarring, degeneration and dystrophy, keratoconus and keratoglobus are co...