Costs of stored corneal grafts

Background: Organ culture medium and Optisol are the most commonly used corneal storage mediums. This study compares the costs for these two methods. Methods: In the calculation of costs we did not just take the direct costs into account, but also tried to determine the fixed costs per transplanted cornea with corresponding assumptions. Results: Proceeding on the assumption that 50 stored corneas were transplanted per year, an amount of 11,660 ATS (1,666 DM, 857 ECU) for each organ cultured and 11,986 ATS (1,712 DM, 881 ECU) for each graft preserved in Optisol was calculated. Raising the number of transplanted corneas to 400 per year, each tissue stored in organ culture medium costs 2,811 ATS (402 DM, 207 ECU) and those preserved in Optisol 3234 ATS (462 DM, 238 ECU). Conclusion: Since organ culture storage gives us a reduction in costs of more than 15% compared to storing in Optisol, when preserving 400 transplantable grafts, from the business economics aspect, this storage method should be preferred.