The preservation fluids and cornea might contain fungal or bacterial infections. It is believed that those infections could affect graft quality during donation. The study compares the loss of endothelial in patients who accepted viral DNA-positive graft and the controls after two years from the corneal transplantation.
The researchers analyzed the clinical data of cell density of patients with respect to age, aetiology, operation, and sex and compared it with that of controls. The data included in this study were patients between 2017 and 2019 at Peking University Third Hospital, China.
2.44% of the donors (23 subjects) tested positive by the real-time PCR. 27 patients with DNA-positive graft and 48 with viral DNA-negative were studied. The patients with DNA-positive grafts had higher EC (endothelial keratoplasty), but the post-deep lamellar keratoplasty loss rate was the same as that of control. Recipients of varicella-zoster, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex virus were found to have higher EC loss during the twelve and 24-month threshold.
The study proved that the virus could be found in the corneal graft, especially in corneal endothelium. When a subject receives grafts from infected individuals, there is no necessity for immediate replacement. However, follow-up is essential.
Ref URL: https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2020/10/14/bjophthalmol-2020-317629
