Due to the scarcity of donor corneas, some eye banks are beginning to increase the age limit for those donating corneas from 75 to 80. Focusing on a single donor eye bank (Saving Sight Eye Bank in Kansas City MO), Roy Chuck, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues studied the effect of donor age expansion on corneal quality (as measured by endothelial cell density, or ECD) and surgeons’ acceptance of thousands of donor corneas over the period 2018 to 2022. Most corneas were donated when the upper age limit was still 75, while several hundred were donated after August 2022, when the age limit was extended from 75 to 80.

The researchers compared two groups of corneas from eye bank donors: individuals between 2 and 75 years old (25,558 corneas) and those between 76 and 80 years old (411 corneas). Corneal quality as measured by ECD was slightly worse among donors aged 76-80 compared with donors aged 71-75, but the differences were judged to be clinically insignificant. However, surgeons were significantly less likely to select corneas from older donors for transplantation: Tissue from donors aged 71-75 had a 48% surgeon acceptance rate, while the acceptance rate for tissue from those aged 76-80 was 38%. The researchers concluded that age bias by surgeons against older corneas was a possible reason for this finding and warrants further study. The study published online on October 10 in Eye Banking and Corneal Transplantation.

Dr. Chuck is professor and chair of ophthalmology and visual sciences and professor of genetics and holds the Paul Henkind Chair in Ophthalmology. The study’s first author was fourth-year Einstein medical student Ayobami Adebayo.