ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To compare the effect of 1% versus 5% polyvinylpyrrolidone-iodine (PVP-I) chemical preparation (prep) of the eye on the recovery of organisms from donor globes before in situ recovery of donor corneal tissue. METHODS: One hundred consecutive pairs of donor corneas (200 eyes) were randomized to receive either 1% or 5% PVP-I drops applied to the conjunctival cul-de-sac, which was left in place for 2 minutes. Limbal cultures were obtained before and after prepping of the eye. RESULTS: Twenty-five different species of organisms were recovered. Native flora of the eye included coagulase-negative staphylococci (62%), Corynebacterium species (27%), streptococcal species (9.5%), gram-negative bacilli (14.5%), Staphylococcus aureus (5%), anaerobes (10%), and yeast (2%). After PVP-I instillation of the donor eye, 74 isolates were recovered from the 1% P-I group and 76 isolates from the 5% PVP-I group. Cultures were sterile after PVP-I prep in 49 eyes and 47 eyes in the 1% PVP-I group and 5% PVP-I group, respectively. Microorganism colony forming units were similar among post-prep cultures from both PVP-I groups. The effect of the PVP-I prep on the number of negative cultures and on the reduction in the number of isolates was highly significant for both the 1% PVP-I group and the 5% PVP-I group when compared with the limbal cultures taken before PVP-I instillation. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that 1% and 5% PVP-I solutions are equally effective for chemical prep of the donor eye. Because PVP-I is known to be toxic to the corneal endothelium and corneal fibroblasts, this study suggests that 1% PVP-I should be the preferred disinfectant for the recovery of corneal donors.
