Resumen

MOKEY CASTELLANOS, Miguel Omar; PEREZ SUAREZ, Raúl Gabriel  y  ALEMANY MARTORELL, Jaime. The ideal eye bank and donor. Rev Cubana Oftalmol [online]. 2007, vol.20, n.2. ISSN 0864-2176.

The accelerated growth and development of ophthalmology in terms of technology and formation of human resources also embraces eye banks and corneal transplantation.  Therefore, it is necessary to promote a culture of eye donation among ophthalmologists, health workers and the general society. The objectives of this paper were to describe the basis of the Cuban society attitudes towards organ and tissue donation as a way of meeting the growing demands of patients requiring corneal transplantation; to inform about the standards of the Pan American Association of Eye Banks, the procedures and methodologies followed in the face of a cadaver donor of ocular bulbs. The Ophthalmological Service of "Hermanos Ameijeiras" hospital  has obtained 2 396 ocular bulbs that have been used in 723 corneal transplants and has distributed corneas and other tissues for other institutions. Those ocular bulbs that were not useful for optical purposes, were used for lamellar transplants, surgical practice and research. Seropositive HIV donors, Hepatitis B and C affected donors were detected in 3, 30 and 23 of them respectively. No transplant-borne disease was reported. Very few postsurgical ocular diseases were detected. Although the corneal requirements for transplantation are not met yet,  this huge demand can not lead us to non-compliance with the set standards and procedures, which will reduce the possibilities of finding the ideal donor.

Palabras clave : Keratoplasty; corneal transplant; donor cornea; biological means of preservation.