Project of cornea donation in the hospital complex of Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Rio Grande do Sul is a state of 10 million inhabitants, with 800 patients on the transplantation waiting list (80 per million population [pmp]/y) with a mean waiting time of 2 years. Up to 2000, there were 11 to 15 cornea donors and 70 to 80 transplantations yearly. Seeking to increase the number of corneas available for transplantation and reduce the time on the waiting list, we initiated a project wherein the hospital transplantation coordinator trained the morgue staff to evaluate all deceased persons. If the person had no contraindication, the morgue staff called the coordinator to interview the family. Whenever donation was authorized, the coordinator communicated with the Cornea Bank to perform a removal. There was a major increase in the number of donations (220/y) with this project responsible for more than 70% of the cornea donors on cardiac arrest in the Rio Grande do Sul State. The mean time on the waiting list decreased to 14 months. This model was efficient, and must be implemented in other hospitals in the state, attempting to decrease both the list and the waiting time for a corneal transplant.