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Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Lublin Eye Bank activities.
Methods We compared the corneal donors screening rules, number of harvested corneas before, during, and after the pandemic (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 years).
Results In 2019 we had 182 corneal donors and 360 harvested corneas; in 2020 – 114 donors and 227 corneas; in 2021 – 151 donors and 300 corneas, and in 2022 till the 15th November – 115 donors and 228 corneas. From the 11th March 2020, when the World Health Organization had declared a global pandemic, our Eye Bank ceased all activities until the 10th May 2020. We started then, according to recommendations of Polish Transplantation Society, performing a nasopharyngeal swabs specimen collecting for every corneal donor. In 2020 we noted only 1 positive donor, whereas in 2021 we had 9 and in 2022 - 12 SARS-CoV-2 positive donors, respectively. Overall mean reduction in the number of corneal donors and obtained corneal tissues of 6,3% was observed in the Lublin Eye Bank
Conclusion
COVID–19 pandemic had an influence on the Lublin Eye Bank activities.
Fortunately, the pandemic did not have a major impact on the number of donors as well as the corneas collected in our bank.
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