Antibacterial effect of donor corneas stored in gentamicin-enriched McCarey-Kaufman medium

C. W. Yau, M. Busin, I. Avni and H. E. Kaufman

Penetrating keratoplasty was performed on five pairs of rabbit eyes; one eye of each animal received a donor cornea stored in McCarey-Kaufman (M-K) medium containing gentamicin, and the contralateral eye received a donor cornea stored in M-K medium without gentamicin. At the end of surgery, dilutions of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were introduced into the anterior chamber of both eyes. The eyes receiving gentamicin-enriched corneas showed mild to moderate infection; the contralateral eyes showed significantly more severe infection. The results indicated that donor corneas stored in gentamicin-enriched M-K medium inhibit the growth of bacteria acquired at the time of surgery and thus may improve the safety of such transplantation procedures.