Original research
Impact of quality assurance on utilization of corneal tissues in a community Eye Bank

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joco.2019.07.001Get rights and content
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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the linkage between Quality Assurance Program (QAP) and increase in utilization of donor corneas at a community Eye Bank.

Methods

A donor cornea is defined as utilized when it is used for cornea transplant. Two metrics, utilization rate (UR) and non-utilization rate (NUR), were defined. The Eye Bank implemented QAP from 2011. As a part of QAP, detailed gap analysis of tissue utilization was performed. Four major categories causing non-utilization of recovered corneas were identified. These categories were poor “Tissue Quality”, “Seropositive” donor blood sample, “Medical History” of donor, and donor “Blood Sample Issues.” The years 2008–2011 were labelled the pre-intervention period, and the years 2012–2017 were labelled the post-intervention period. Annual UR and annual NUR for the four categories of non-utilization from the pre and the post-intervention periods were statistically compared.

Results

In the pre-intervention period, the Eye Bank recovered 1425 donor corneas in total and transplanted 762. In the post-intervention period, the Eye Bank recovered 6661 corneas in total and transplanted 4393. The UR improved from 53.47% (762/1425) in the pre-intervention period to 65.95% (4393/6661) in the post-intervention period (P < 0.001). NUR in “Tissue Quality” category decreased from 34.32% to 29.7% from the pre to the post-intervention period (P < 0.001). NUR in “Blood Sample Issues” category reduced from 3.23% to 0.32% from the pre to the post-intervention period (P < 0.001). NUR in “Medical History” category decreased from 5.68% to 0.33% from the pre to the post-intervention period (P < 0.001).

Conclusions

The study indicates that QAP improves UR of recovered corneas. In countries with a shortage of donor corneas, increasing utilization of recovered corneas can lead to an increase in corneal transplants. Implementation of QAP at the Eye Bank can be a means of achieving this outcome.

Keywords

Eye bank
Cornea transplant
Utilization rate
Non-utilization rate
Quality assurance
Reasons of non-utilization

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Conflict of interest: None.

Peer review under responsibility of the Iranian Society of Ophthalmology.