Specular microscopic evaluation of donor corneal endothelium.

The corneal endothelium of intact isolated globes can be histologically evaluated with a specular microscope. The best observations are made within 6 to 8 postmortem hours; however, useful observations have been demonstrated up to 19 postmortem hours in a moist chamber stored eye at 4 C. The technique takes only a few minutes and enables one to see individual endothelial cell changes at magnifications of 120X to 400X. Endothelial screening can be done with this system for such changes as guttata, low cell populations, and trauma.