ETIOLOGY AND RISK FACTORS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH INFECTIOUS KERATITIS AMONG PATIENTS ATTENDING TERTIARY CARE OPHTHALMIC HOSPITALS IN CHENNAI
Dr. Senthilvadivu C.* and Stalin M.
ABSTRACT
Infectious keratitis is one of the most important causes of preventable blindness in the developing world. Delay in
diagnosing the nature of infection is one of the paramount factors, which may leads to inappropriate initial therapy
and poor outcomes. Hence this study was aimed to identify the etiological agents and risk factors associated with
infectious keratitis among patients attending tertiary care centres located in Chennai. A total of 150 corneal
scraping samples from the infectious keratitis patients and data were collected. All bacterial and fungal and
parasitic isolates were identified by standard microbiological techniques as recommended by Clinical and
Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). Of the 150 corneal scrapings, 94 (62.6%) were found to be culture positive
for bacterial, fungal and parasitic agents. Of which, fungal agents were found to be predominant 54 (57.4%). The
most frequently isolated fungal, bacterial and protozoan agents were Aspergillus.sp, Staphylococcus aureus and
Acanthamoeba.spp respectively. Incidence of infectious keratitis was found to be significantly (p=0.009) higher
among male patients and vegetable matter was the commonest traumatic factor, which contributed to 47.8%.
Prevalence of infectious keratitis due to trauma was found to be significantly (p=0.005) higher among patients
from rural area. In this study, infectious keratitis predominantly associated with fungal etiology and vegetative
matter induced ocular trauma as the major predisposing factor, strongly suggests that the diagnosis of nature of
infection to establish clinical management is mandatory and create awareness among people especially from rural
background with regard to trauma as a major predisposing factor for infectious keratitis.
Keywords: (Infectious keratitis, trauma and corneal scraping).
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