Prevention of surface bacterial contamination of donor corneas
K. N. Goldman, Y. Centifanto, H. E. Kaufman and T. E. Slappey
A simple method has been developed to reduce contamination in postmortem
donor human eyes in anticipation of corneal transplantation. In vivo
investigation of albino rabbits demonstrates that vigorous saline solution
irrigation is extremely effective in decreasing the surface bacterial
counts of the postmortem eye. In vitro and in vivo studies show that
Neosporin kills bacteria at room temperature and further show that a
tenfold increase in the thimerosal concentration of the Neosporin will kill
fungus. Postmortem eyes contaminated by pathogenic organisms can be
effectively cleaned by a combination of saline solution irrigation and the
new Neosporin-thimerosal solution. No substantial damage of the donor
tissue was noted by scanning electron microscopy. Human eyes cultured
before this procedure were all contaminated, but after cleansing and
immersion, no bacterial or fungal growth occurred.
