Shubham Mittal¹, Harvinder Nagpal¹, Balbir Singh², Rupinder Bakshi³, Anand Aggarwal¹*, Pradeep Deewan⁴, Rishabh Taneja³, Divjot Kaur¹, Chiman Lal¹ and Indu Khosa¹

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College, Patiala, India
²Director, Guru Teg Bahadur Superspecialty Eye Hospital, Patiala and Honorable Health Minister, Vidhan Sabha Punjab, Chandigarh, India
³Department of Microbiology, GMCH Sector 32, Chandigarh, India
⁴Chief Administrator and Director, Beas Hospital, Beas, India

*Corresponding Author: Anand Aggarwal, Department of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College, Patiala, India.

Received: March 21, 2023; Published: April 04, 2023

Abstract

Design: This was a observational, prospective, interventional study.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab.

Introduction: Infective Keratitis refers to the diseases affecting cornea caused by infective agents which leads to necrosis and suppuration resulting in corneal tissue ulcers. It is a potentially blinding condition that must be treated emergently to preserve vision. Fungal corneal ulcers are the most common, accounting for 30-40% of the cases followed by bacterial, viral and amoebic corneal ulcers.

Methods: It was a prospective, open labelled, interventional study including 75 patients of infective keratitis reporting to the Ophthalmology OPD at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. Cases diagnosed with microbial keratitis were evaluated clinically using slit lamp biomicroscope and microbiologically using smears and cultures. The patients were treated accordingly and followed up to analyze the treatment response and outcomes in these patients.

Results: Out of 75 patients enrolled in the study, 31 were diagnosed to have fungal keratitis (41.3%), 22 had bacterial keratitis (29.3%) and 6 had mixed infection (8%). 9 patients were diagnosed with viral keratitis based on the clinical picture. Aspergillus was the most commonly isolated fungal species followed by Fusarium and Staphylococcus was the most common isolated bacteria. Fungal keratitis took the longest to heal and had maximum complications compared to other etiologies.

Conclusion: Being an agricultural state the incidence of fungal keratitis is much more in Punjab compared to other microbes. Treating a fungal corneal ulcer is very challenging inspite of the available diagnostic and treatment methods.

 Keywords: Infective Keratitis; Microbiology; Bacteria; Fungi

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Citation

Citation: Anand Aggarwal., et al. “Clinical and Microiological Profile of Infective Keratitis in a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 6.5 (2023): 03-10.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Anand Aggarwal., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.