Are our cornea waiting lists dynamic enough?

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dynamic reality of the corneal transplant (CT) waiting list and if the CT candidates are really eager to operation. We evaluated the response of consecutive 96 CT candidates to call for operation. The age, functional visual acuity, CT indication, waiting period, and the excuse of refusal for candidates that postponed the operation were also evaluated. The patients were classified into two groups according to the availability (Group 1, available; Group 2, unavailable). To find an available candidate for transplantation of 48 consecutive corneal tissues, 96 patients had to be called. The mean age of the patients was 57.49 ± 18.75. The mean age of Group 1 and Group 2 was 54.28 ± 18.12 (13–80) and 60.44 ± 19.01 (9–88) years, respectively (p = 0.108). It was found that the call refusal was higher in patients elder than age 70 (p = 0.04). The mean time between being added to the list and the call was 22.96 ± 7.80 (9–39) months for Group 1, 27.02 ± 8.25 (9–53) months for Group 2 (p = 0.015). The estimation point for waiting period was 22 months (p = 0.044). The most common reasons of excuse were inconvenience of timing, giving up operation, and secondary health problems, whereas anticoagulant use was the most common reason for postponement. As the waiting period gets longer and CT candidates get older, they tend to give up operation. The secondary health problems and use of systemic anticoagulants are important problems that might cause postponing the CT surgery and ruin the dynamicity of the waiting lists.