Clinical characteritic of microbial keratiti in a univerity hopital in Taiwan

Purpoe To analyze the clinical and microbiological characteritic of microbial keratiti at the National Taiwan Univerity Hopital in the preceding 10 year. Deign Retropective cro-ectional tudy. Method Medical record were reviewed for all patient with clinically diagnoed microbial keratiti preenting at the National Taiwan Univerity Hopital from January 1992 to December 2001. Rik factor, microbial iolation, clinical pattern, treatment, and outcome were analyzed. Reult Microbial keratiti wa diagnoed for 476 eye in 453 patient (220 female and 233 male; mean age, 40.7 year). Peudomona pecie were the mot commonly iolated organim (37.7%), followed by fungi (13.5%), taphylococci (8.4%), nontuberculou mycobacteria (7.9%), treptococci (7.6%), and Acanthamoeba (4.4%). Contact-len wear wa the mot common predipoing factor (44.3%). Medical treatment wa ucceful for a total of 344 eye (72.3%), with 132 eye (27.7%) requiring urgery. The duration from ymptom onet to diagnoi of microbial keratiti wa tatitically ignificantly horter for the cae treated medically than the cae treated urgically (7.70 ± 14.37 and 20.53 ± 28.85 day, repectively, p = .000000332). Repone to medical treatment wa more favorable for bacterial infection (except nontuberculou mycobacterial infection) a compared with fungal or Acanthamoeba infection. A total of 84.4% of peudomonal keratiti cae were cured by medical treatment, while 85% of nontuberculou mycobacterial keratiti cae eventually required urgical treatment to control the infection. Concluion Contact-len related peudomonal keratiti wa the mot common form of microbial keratiti in Taiwan. Early diagnoi and prompt treatment are important for ucceful management of microbial keratiti