Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group
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2016 OMIG Abstract 6

Positive Donor Rim Cultures and Post-keratoplasty Endophthalmitis in
Ontario Donor Corneas
Rahul A Sharma MD¹, John SY Park BSc², Yao Wang MD³, Linda Sharpen MLT⁴, Rookaya Mather MD^5
1The Department of Ophthalmology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
²The Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
³The Department of Ophthalmology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
⁴The Eye Bank of Canada (Ontario Division), Toronto, Ontario
⁵The Ivey Eye Institute, St. Joseph’s Hospital, London, Ontario

Objective: i) To assess the incidence of positive microbiological cultures of donor corneal tissues obtained from the Eye Bank of Canada (Ontario Division) between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014, (ii) to examine the factors associated with these positive cultures and (iii) to assess the incidence of endophthalmitis during the study period and its correlation to its donor tissue.

Participants: 4,186 consecutive corneal tissues prepared by the Eye Bank from January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2014.

Methods: The incidences of culture-positive donor cornea rims and endophthalmitis at five surgical centres in Ontario were determined, while the protocols used to culture cornea rims perioperatively at each site were concurrently reviewed. Subsequently, all of the culture results were analyzed via logistic regression for positive cultures.

Results: All five surgical centres were compared against the site with the lowest incidence of positive cultures. Three centres were noted to have significantly higher positive cultures (p<0.0001, p<0.0001 and p=0.0288). No endophthalmitis case was identified within the study period. In comparing respective microbiology protocols, the number of days of incubation before a culture was deemed negative had significant correlation with the rate of positive cultures. Specifically, an incubation period of 11 days was 12 times more likely to be associated with a culture-positive result than an incubation period of 4-5 days (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: No previous studies have evaluated the association between positive culture rates of donor corneas and the microbiological protocols used at each surgical centre in Ontario. Our study reveals significant variability in the incidence of positive cultures obtained at each centre and in the respective protocols used to culture corneal tissues. A literature review regarding the utility of routine microbiological culturing reveals conflicting data. Furthermore, our findings seem to suggest limited utility of routine corneal rim culturing in predicting complications.

No disclosure

2016 Agenda and Abstracts | < Previous | Next >