A research paper by Taiwanese doctors could change the accepted view that corneas from patients with bacteremia cannot be transplanted and help increase the supply for those awaiting donor corneas.
Standard practice for eye banks is to reject organs donated by bacteremic patients, as they could be contaminated, said National Taiwan University Hospital Department of Ophthalmology director Hu Fung-rong (胡芳蓉), one of the authors of the research paper.
Bacteremia is the condition where bacteria are present in a patient’s blood, which is usually a sterile environment. The cornea is the outer layer of the eye and helps focus vision.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The blood-aqueous humor barrier and the blood-retinal barrier in human eyes make it difficult for bacteria in blood to enter the eyes, Hu said, adding that the cornea itself has no veins and is even less likely to become contaminated.
Recent research has begun questioning the need to reject such tissue from bacteremic donors, which was a catalyst for the research, she said.
The researchers analyzed corneas from 454 donors at the National Eye Bank of Taiwan from January 2014 to June 2017, Hu said, adding that they analyzed 70 sets of corneas from bacteremic donors and 627 sets from non-bacteremic donors.
The blood culture results showed that the average microbial contamination rates of the corneas from bacteremic and non-bacteremic donors were 7.1 percent and 9.1 percent respectively, and they had similar endothelial cell densities, Hu said.
The research paper was on Oct. 15 last year published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Medical Affairs
Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) on Thursday said that more than 60 percent of corneas for transplant were imported from foreign eye banks, which has consequences for surgery results and costs patients between NT$50,000 to NT$100,000.
The research results could help increase the supply of corneas and further lower the burden on patients, after the National Eye Bank was established in 2013 and the National Health Insurance started covering transplantation costs, Shih said.
Average wait times for cornea transplants have dropped from 123 days to 96.5 days since the eye bank was established, but there is always room for improvement, Hu said.
People should seek a cornea transplant if the top layer of their eye becomes “cloudy” or they develop corneal edema, which can happen due to trauma from traffic accidents, infection or other causes.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS