Transplantation of the cornea is often the only possible treatment of many ophthalmological diseases and injuries. The quality of the donor cornea determines in a major way the success of transplantation and therefore the demands on its quality must be high. Objective: Assess how the vitality of the endothelium changes in relation to the time which elapsed since the donor´s death after storage of the cornea in the medium (death/preservation time, DPT). If the vitality of the endothelium is poor, the oedema of the cornea persists at room temperature. Methods:The endothelium of the donor cornea was examined before transplantation under a specularmicroscope Bio Optics (USA). According to DPT the corneae were divided into three groups: lst group - 22 corneae where DPT is shorter than 5 hours 2nd group - 33 corneae where DPT is 6-10 hours 3rd group - 46 corneae where DPT was longer than 10 hours Results:In the first group the corneae got rid of the oedema after 20 minutes at room temperature and endothelial cells could be observed in detail. In the second group the corneae got rid of the oedema after 20 minutes but there were rare oedematous sites where the endothelial function was not adequate. In the third group even after long time at room temperature the cornea did not get rid of the oedema, and on examination it was very difficult to find a group of endothelial cells for evaluation. Conclusion: Corneae from group 1 have a totally vital endothelium, in the second group there are sites on the cornea where the vitality of the endothelium is already impaired, in the third group the vitality of the entire endothelium is impaired.For transplantation corneae with aDPTshorter than 10 hours are suitable.With aDPT longer than 10 hours they are less suitable or unsuitable for transplantation.

        Key words: keratoplasty, death/preservation time, corneal endothelium, specular microscope