AbstractPurposeTo evaluate the contamination rate and the corresponding spectrum of microbes and to identify donor risk factors for corneal organ culture contaminations.MethodsA total of 3306 organ‐cultured donor corneas were included in the study. We performed a retrospective database analysis to evaluate donor factors such as gender, age, death‐to‐explantation interval (DEI), procurement site and cause of death and to determine their influence on donor cornea contaminations. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for each factor.ResultsThe overall contamination rate was 7.8% (n = 259). Younger donor age (OR: 2.2, p = 0.003, chi‐squared test), a DEI of more than 24 hr (OR: 1.6, p < 0.001), hospitalization prior to death (OR: 2.2, p < 0.001) and death caused by sepsis (OR: 2.7, p < 0.001) were associated with an increased risk of contamination, whereas donor gender did not have an effect on donor cornea contaminations. The most frequently isolated microbes were Enterococci (19%), Staphylococci (10.8%) and Candida (37.4%).ConclusionThis study helps to estimate the contamination risk of a cultured cornea based on specific donor factors. However, donors with risk factors should not be generally excluded from cornea donation. Further studies including antibiograms might clarify whether a change in the antibiotic composition of the culture medium would be useful to deal with the increasing number of multi‐resistant microbes.