Professor & HOD, Dept. of Ophthalmology, MVJ Medical College and Research Hospital, Bangalore Email: vks_4186@rediffmail.com
Online published on 14 October, 2017.
To Study the Pattern of corneal ulcers in patients in semirural south India.
It was a hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study carried out from April to December 2016. Patients reporting with non-viral corneal ulcers were studied for finding microbiological etiology such as bacterial and fungal; and standard laboratory methods were used. Data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 and Chi-square test was used to test significance of attributes.
Out of 58 cases of microbial keratitis, all were sent for culture-39 (67.24%) were culture-proven. 19 (48.71%) showed fungus, 17 (43.58%) were positive for bacteria, 3(7.69%) showed mixed growth, whereas 19(32.75% showed no growth. Patients with agriculture-based work had more risk of development of microbial keratitis.
These results highlight the current trend in the microbiological aetiology of corneal ulcers in semi-rural south India. In rural background the prevalence of fungal keratitis is more, despite there being advanced diagnostic tools and treatment methods, results are still suboptimal in fungal corneal ulcers.
Microbial keratitis, Corneal ulcer, Bacterial ulcer, Fungal ulcer, Mixed ulcer
