Eye Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Shandong Eye Institute, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250021, China
Abstract: Objective: To analyze the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and prognosis of candida keratitis. Methods: In this retrospective case series study, a total of 29 patients (29 eyes) who were diagnosed with candida keratitis from January 2013 to December 2019 were recruited. There were 18 males and 11 females, all with monocular disease. One patient was a 7-month-old girl, and the other 28 patients were between 29 and 91(59.0±13.5) years old. The onset time ranged from 2 to 90 days, with a median of 12 days. The incidence trend, the condition before infection, clinical manifestations, image characteristics of confocal microscopy, treatment and curative effect were analyzed. Results: A total of 29 cases were positive for corneal candida culture (10 cases of candida albicans, 6 cases of candida parapsilosis, and 13 other cases), accounting for 2% of all patients with fungal keratitis during the same period. The most common the condition before infection, were ocular surgery in 26 patients (90%), followed by a history of topical glucocorticoid use in 24 patients (83%), systemic disease in 9 patients (31%), and ocular trauma in 2 patients (7%). Twenty-five patients (86%) had two or more risk factors. The conjunctival congestion of patients with candida keratitis was generally mild, without the typical signs of pseudopodia, hyphae moss, or immune ring structure. Four patients with early keratopathy presented with single or multiple isolated, rounded lesions, which were cured by corneal lesion resection combined with drug therapy. After the lesion progression, the lesions showed various manifestations. The most common was scattered multi-focal infiltration (10 cases, 35%), and the final 23 cases (80%) required surgical treatment. Conclusions: A history of ocular surgery and topical glucocorticoid use are common conditions. The early stage of the disease is characterized by isolated, rounded lesions and there is good prognosis if patients are treated with corneal lesion resection combined with drug therapy. Most patients at the late stage require keratoplasty.
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