INFECTIVE KERATITIS - PREDISPOSING FACTORS, CLINICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS WITH ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS

Abstract

Infective keratitis is a serious ocular disease that can lead to severe visual disability.The annual incidence of microbial keratitis is reported to be 11.3 per 10000 people in India.To identify and determine the association between risk factors and microbiological etiology and to study the antibiotic susceptibility patterns. The study included 142 cases, of which 55 cases were subjected to detailed clinical examination, culturing of the samples and antibiotic susceptibility testing was done according to standard protocols.  Corneal trauma was a major risk factor accounting for 65.4% of cases and 60% of affected patients were involved in agricultural practices with significant male preponderance (65%). Of the 55 cases, 36 showed positive cultures,  where bacterial keratitis was predominantly caused by Staphylococcus species and fungal keratitis by Aspergillus species. In this study bacteria were susceptible to vancomycin (100%), ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol (87.5%) and gentamycin (75.0%). To conclude, this study highlights the burden of infective keratitis on our health care set up, the important preventable risk factors and causative organisms.