National Eye Bank Center will make donor eye transporting more efficient

CHICAGO — The recently opened National Eye Bank Center operated by Tissue Banks International will more effectively evaluate, test and distribute donated eye tissue, according to the organization’s president.

Gerald J. Cole, president and chief executive officer of Tissue Banks International, said the group has selected Memphis, Tenn., as the site for the center because of its proximity to the FedEx “hub” in Memphis.

“We can take advantage of FedEx’s worldwide hub and get tissue evaluated and sent out that same day” for transplantation and research, Mr. Cole said here in an interview with Ocular Surgery News.

Mr. Cole said that before the new center opened, donor corneas were tested and distributed through community-based donor programs throughout the country.

“We still have eye banks,” he said, but he noted that the new facility has different and more state-of-the art equipment to test the donor tissue.

For example, he said, IntraLase Corp. and TBI have agreed to use an IntraLase FS laser for preparation of corneal allografts for transplant. According to a press release issued jointly by TBI and IntraLase, “initial clinical work suggests that allografts prepared with IntraLase’s femtosecond laser are stronger than those prepared with traditional penetrating keratoplasty, with less induction of astigmatism.”