Eye Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran has two main financial-administrative and technical-specialist departments, each of which performs its duties under the supervision of the board of directors and the CEO of Eye Bank. The technical-specialist part consists of the departments of preparing donated tissue, tissue processing and storage laboratory, serology laboratory, reception, sending and quality control department, all of these departments operate under the supervision of the technical-specialist officer of Eye Bank based on international standards. In the preparation of donated tissue, after obtaining the previous history of the donor from his relatives or his medical records and conducting physical examinations, the possibility of any communicable eye or systemic disease is rejected and if it is determined in the previous history or physical examinations of the donor that he is due to illness Hepatitis, HTLV virus, AIDS or died of unknown causes, the cornea of the person will not be processed. In this section, the eye bank user is required to examine all the body parts of the donor, including his eyes, and if the conditions of the donor are suitable for transplantation, after obtaining at least 5 cc of blood from the donor and washing the eyes with serum and betadine under sterile conditions with Using sterile instruments, the cornea or the entire eyeball (depending on the type of donation) is removed.

It should be noted that after tissue removal, there will be no change in the appearance of the donor. After placing the cornea in a special preservative solution and placing the eyeballs in sterile moist containers, the eyes are transferred to the eye bank processing and storage laboratory under a temperature of 4-8 degrees Celsius, so that after separating the serum, various tests are performed. If the results of the tests are negative and the conditions of the cornea are favorable in the slit lamp examination, the eyeball is immersed in a 3% betadine solution for 3 minutes and after washing with a saline solution, the corneal disc is separated from the eyeball along with a small part of the anterior sclera. It is placed inside the corneal preservative solution.

After re-evaluating the cornea inside the preservative solution with a slit lamp, counting the corneal endothelial cells and evaluating the cell area and the percentage of hexagonal cells using a specular microscope, and based on the results of these examinations, the cornea is graded from unfavorable to excellent.

The cornea inside the preservative solution can be stored at 4-8 degrees Celsius for 7-10 days for transplantation. All the information related to the donor, including the cause and time of death, the results of physical examinations, the results of serological tests, along with the information related to the cornea, including the results of the examination of all layers with a slit lamp and the result of the specular microscope, are recorded in the final information sheet for sending, and together with the relevant cornea for surgery. Corneal transplant is sent.

Along with the tissue sent from the eye bank, a list containing all the information related to the donor such as age, sex, cause and time of death, physical examination results, history of previous systemic or eye disease, results of serology tests, results of examining different layers of the cornea with a slit lamp device. And the specular microscope is sent. It should be noted that along with the sent tissue, a post-operative information form is sent to the surgeon, and the surgeon is obliged to report the relevant information including transparency, quality of the cornea, and possible post-operative complications, especially infection, to Eye Bank after the operation. to do The remaining sclera can also be stored after cleaning and removing the pigments attached to it in absolute alcohol in sealed jars at room temperature for up to one year, which is usually used in eye and eyelid reconstructive surgeries, complete removal of the eyeball, or for transplantation. Scleria is used in sclera defects.

How to accept and send link context

The admissions department is responsible for receiving requests from corneal surgeons from public and private centers across the country for patients who need a corneal transplant. Patients in need go to ophthalmology centers and if they need a corneal transplant, the eye bank admission forms are completed by a corneal surgeon and sent to the eye bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran to accept the patient and put them on the transplant list. Every day, taking into account the quality and quantity of donated corneas and the type of corneal disease of the recipients on the waiting list, the sending department sends the appropriate cornea to the intended recipient for transplantation under a temperature of 4-8 degrees Celsius inside special boxes. After the transplant, the responsible surgeon will be obliged to announce the result of the transplant as recorded in the post-operative report form.

Quality control

In the quality control department, all documents related to donors, serology results, information on corneas and sclera, and information related to recipients after transplantation are re-evaluated and all documents are archived both in the form of electronic files and in the form of administrative documents.