Epithelial damage of corneal grafts after prolonged storage in dextran-containing organ culture medium - a prospective study

Background: High-molecular dextran added to organ culture medium is. used for deswelling of corneal grafts before surgery. As we had the impression to have more often epithelial desquamation if storage time in dextran-containing medium was longer than 1 day, we investigated this problem in a pilot study. Methods: We examined prospectively the effect of the storage period on the graft epithelium one day after penetrating keratoplasty in 137 corneal grafts which were stored in dextran-containing storage medium (dextran T500 6%). 88 corneal grafts were stored for 1-2 days (12-48 hours) and 49 corneal grafts were stored for 3-4 days (60-96 hours). Before deswelling, all 137 grafts had been stored 10-14 days in dextran-free organ culture medium. Postoperative epithelial defects observed 1 day after surgery were classified as margin and central erosions of the graft. Results: With a storage period in dextran-containing organ culture medium of 1-2 days statistically significantly less epithelial defects were observed in comparison to a longer storage period of 3-4 days (33% vs. 57%, p=0,005). We found a statistically high significant correlation between storage time in dextran-containing organ culture medium and central erosions (p=0,001), whereas margin erosions were observed after 1-2 days as well as after 3-4 days (p=0,2). Conclusion: Our data show that early postoperative epithelial stability of corneal grafts depends on the storage period in dextran-containing organ culture medium.