Microbiological profile of keratomycosis in a tertiary care hospital: a retrospective study

Context: Corneal ulcer is one of the major causes of ocular morbidity in developing countries and fungi are the main etiological agents of corneal ulceration in India. Risk factors for fungal keratitis are male gender, history of ocular trauma, chronic use of corticosteroids and systemic diseases, that impair the host immunity Aims: To determine microbiological profile of fungal keratitis2 .To determine the epidemiological profile of fungal keratitis. Settings and Design: Descriptive – cross sectional study. Methods and Material: A retrospective study was done for the period of six months. Corneal scrapings taken from the clinically diagnosed cases of fungal keratitis and processed by direct microscopic methods and standard culture techniques Statistical analysis used: Statistical analysis was done by using MS Excel sheet. Descriptive statistics like percentage calculation was done in the study. Results: Among the 23 fungal keratitis positive cases, males outnumbered females. The maximum number of positive cases were seen in the age group of 31-40 years, followed by the age group of 51-60 years. The most common cause of fungal keratitis was found out to be Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium (31.25 % each), followed by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus calidoustus (17.39 % each), and Acremonium (8.69 % ), Curvularia, Rhizomucor, Aspergillus niger (4.34% each). Aspergillus species were found to be isolated from 43.4% of cases of keratomycosis. Amongst the fungal keratitis cases, 91.3% cases were positive for fungal growth on culture and 8..6% cases were positive for the presence of fungal elements on direct microscopy. Conclusions: Lack of early diagnosis and treatment lead to the onset of complications, which may compromise the patient's vision and thereby the quality of life.