Endothelial cell viability comparing Eusol-C vs Optisol-GS as corneal preservation medium

Abstract

Introduction: Optisol-GS is the most widely used corneal preservation medium worldwide, there is little evidence to compare it against Eusol-C as a corneal preservation medium. Objectives: To evaluate the viability of endothelial cells between two different corneal preservation media. Materials and Methods: It is a prospective, longitudinal, and comparative study, which was carried out in the eye bank of Hospital General de México “Dr. Eduardo Liceaga”, from where the corneas of suitable donors were collected, the right cornea was preserved in Optisol-GS and the left in Eusol-C. Two evaluations were carried out on day 1 and 5. Endothelial cell density, coefficient of cell variation and hexagonality were analysed. Results: The decrease in endothelial cells on day 5 after collection of the corneoscleral tissue was 8.149% in the corneas stored in Optisol-GS and 7.614% in Eusol-C p=0.006. Cell variation increased 1.634% in Optisol-GS and 8.942% in Eusol-C p=0.948. Cell hexagonality decreased 6.988% in Optisol-GS and 9.480% in Eusol-C p=0.936. Conclusions: No superiority was found when comparing these two media, which shows that Eusol-C is as effective as Optisol-GS for corneal preservation for at least five days.

Keywords

• Optisol-GS. Eusol-C. Specular microscopy. Corneal storage media. Endothelial cell density.