Prospective, randomized clinical and endothelial evaluation of 2 storage times for cornea donor tissue in organ culture at 31 degrees C.

Objective: To compare the endothelial and clinical outcome of penetrating keratoplasty with corneas stored in organ culture for up to 12 days (5-12 days; group 1) or more than 21 days (21-24 days; group 2).

Methods: We conducted a controlled double-masked trial. Storage durations were randomly assigned to the paired corneas, and endothelial cell density (ECD) was measured at the start and end of organ culture.