RESUMO
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.
