Eye banking error: report of a donor cornea with a soft contact lens left in place

PURPOSE: To report the first known case of a donor cornea being examined and shipped with a soft contact lens in place. METHODS: Case Report. RESULTS: Surgery was cancelled, the two involved eye-banks were notified, and the patient underwent successful keratoplasty 2 days later. CONCLUSION: Eye banking is essential to the practice of Ophthalmology. Rarely, errors occur despite the strict protocols and procedures that have been instituted over the years. These errors force us to reevaluate and update those policies as technology rapidly advances. We present here the first reported case of donor ocular tissue being examined and then shipped with a contact lens on the cornea. It is possible that there are other errors that are not published. It behooves us to disclose these and to discuss any of these errors openly to allow us to maintain confidence in our local eye banks, and to help us practice the safest medicine possible for our patients.