Also, because multiple transplants can be performed from one donor cornea, serological and other Quality Assurance tests need only be done on the one source cornea, resulting in significant cost savings, and further reducing delays in transplantation. The implications of this analysis are not limited to corneal endothelial transplantation alone. This analytic model could potentially be applied to other fields, including: other types of tissue-engineered constructs e.g. epithelial constructs for ocular surface reconstruction, as well as transplantation of other tissues like pancreatic islets for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Stem cell-based alternatives to donor pancreatic islet tissue are currently an area of active research. As cell culture protocols and techniques become more clearly defined, it would be important to conduct similar pharmacoeconomic analyses of these stem cell-based strategies for pancreatic islet transplantation as well. To the best of our knowledge, no such studies have been attempted yet. The results of this study should be interpreted with a measure of caution. Cost-minimization analysis is grounded in the assumption that the competing therapies produce equivalent outcomes. While tissue-engineered endothelial constructs should, in theory, PR-957 perform as well as precut donor tissue in terms of surgical ease, complication rates and outcomes, this has yet to be proven. We do not know if the two approaches will have equivalent success rates, long-term graft survival or quality of life after transplantation. There is currently no data from human studies that proves their therapeutic equivalence, and future clinical trials in this area are needed. Our pharmacoeconomic analyses are complementary to clinical trials in this area, and should be interpreted alongside such work. If data arises showing that the two therapies do indeed differ in outcome, then a full cost-effectiveness analysis will be GW786034 VEGFR/PDGFR inhibitor necessary. Nevertheless, the authors feel that for the purposes of this analysis, this assumption is reasonable. From a surgical perspective at least, corneal endothelial transplantation with tissue-engineered grafts is technically feasible, and should not be significantly different from precut EK grafts in terms of surgical ease or complication rates.