Corneal cryo-preservation and its clinical application.

Shortage of fresh corneal tissue for keratoplasty and expensive equipment needed for cryo-preservation has confined the field of corneal transplantation. The development of a simple medium for storage of corneal tissue which is inexpensive, which requires no technical assistance, and which provides the surgeon with excellent tissue would be very helpful. Forty-five of 55 human corneas stored for up to seven days in a simple tissue culture medium remained clear and thin after keratoplasty. Corneal deturgescence rates of tissue stored in this medium compared favorably with those rates for fresh and cryopreserved tissue.