UK shortage of cornea donors

Donor cornea supply in the UK is predominantly channelled through the UK Transplant Support Service (UKTSS) Authority, a central organisation located in Bristol which organises the distribution of organs for transplantation generally. In recent years the cornea transplant service (CTS), a subdivision of the UKTSS, has devolved to two main centres of distribution, at Manchester and Bristol. Supply of donor material has been excellent and the service provided is a highly efficient one, such that most anterior segment surgeons can now schedule corneal graft surgery as part of their routine surgical list. For a number of reasons, it is believed that this “cold surgery” approach has a beneficial effect on graft survival. However, over the past year, the ability of the CTS to sustain this service has been under threat owing to the shortage of corneas, especially from younger donors. The number of requests accepted for donor corneas has had to be restricted, and some users of the service are being faced with rescheduling graft surgery or returning to the old days of “ad hoc” surgery when material becomes available to them locally. The shortage of tissue is due solely to a fall in numbers of eyes being contributed to the CTS eye banks. In the first eight months of 1997, only 2392 donor eyes were received, compared with 2853 for the same period in 1996, a 16% reduction. The CTS is unsure …