Paediatric microbial keratitis prognosis more effective with intensive drug therapy

Early diagnosis, intensive drug therapy, and timely surgical intervention are all associated with the improved prognosis of paediatric microbial keratitis, states an investigation in the European Journal of Ophthalmology.

Dr Xiusheng Song et al., Department of Ophthalmology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, China, studied the medical records of 80 eyes of 76 children with non-viral microbial keratitis. The outcome measures included demographic features, predisposing factors, clinical features, etiologic microorganisms, and treatment outcomes.

Of the patients studied, 76 met the inclusion criteria. It was found that the most common predisposing factor of microbial keratitis was trauma, with 39 of 80 patients presenting as culture positive. In 21 cases bacterial isolates were found and fungi was found in 19 cases.

Out of the 58 examined eyes, 50 presented with a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or better at the last follow-up. The most frequent bacteria that were isolated were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus.