MICROBIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF INFECTIOUS KERATITIS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Published 2022 - 26th ESCRS Winter Meeting
Reference: FP78 | Type: Abstracts | DOI: 10.82333/rrrn-gx58
Authors: Mário Lima Fontes* 1 , Mariana Leuzinger Dias 1 , Pedro Neves Cardoso 1 , Luís Torrão 1 , Raúl Moreira 1 , Fernando Falcão Reis 1 , João Pinheiro Costa 1
1Ophthalmology Department,Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João,Porto,Portugal
Purpose
Covid-19 pandemic introduced profound changes in our daily habits, including the frequent use of face masks. Numerous reports from around the world pointed to an increase in dry eye symptoms, due to an upwards route of the exhaled air over the ocular surface. Therefore, we speculated if this mechanism could have led to a change in the microbiological profile of infectious keratitis.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the microbiological results of corneal scrapes from patients with presumed infectious keratitis, in our tertiary center, since March 2020, when the first cases of Covid-19 were identified in Portugal.
Setting
Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João, in Porto, Portugal.
Methods
A retrospective study was performed, based on the survey review of electronic medical records of all patients with presumed infectious keratitis, between March 2020 and October 2021. Microbial cultures were performed, and patients were treated according to an internal protocol.
Results
A total of 194 samples from the same number of patients were included. 54% were female patients and the mean age at diagnosis was 49 ± 15 years old.
We obtained a 43.3% culture-positive rate. Bacteria accounted for 83.33% of all positive scrapes (60.71% were Gram positive and 34.52% were Gram negative), fungi for 11.90% and Acanthamoeba for 3.57%. The most frequent agent identified was Corynebacterium macginleyi (22.62%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (16.67% each) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (8.33%).
The most common ophthalmologic risk factors identified were the use of contact lenses (40.7%), previous ocular trauma (8.8%) and history of corneal ulcer (7.7%).
Diabetes (7.7%) and poor systemic status/multiple comorbidities (4.6%) were the most frequent systemic associations.
Conclusion
Most of the microorganisms identified in our sample are known commensals of the upper respiratory tract or pathogenic agents associated with respiratory infections. However, our results did not significatively differ from the ones published by Oliveira-Ferreira et al. in 2019, regarding the microbiological profile of infectious keratitis in our tertiary center from 2009 to 2018. Therefore, the long-term use of face masks doesn’t seem to promote significant changes in the microbiological causes of infectious keratitis.