Bacterial Keratitis

Excerpt

Bacterial keratitis or corneal ulcer is an infection of the corneal tissue caused by varied bacterial species. It can be an acute, chronic, or transient infectious process of the cornea with a variable predilection for topographical, anatomical, or geographical domains of the cornea. It can present as insidious progressive ulceration or rapidly deteriorating suppurative infection of any part of corneal tissue. The cornea can be invaded by various microorganisms like viruses, fungi, protozoa, and bacteria, but bacteria are most concerning due to rapidly progressive vision-threatening keratitis with irreversible visual sequelae.

When anatomical, mechanical and antimicrobial barriers of microbial keratitis are breached, it invites vision-threatening keratitis. The past few decades have seen a rapid increase in contact lens users globally, resulting in an increase in bacterial keratitis proportionately.

The diagnosis rests on clinical and microbiological evaluation. With rapid advances in clinical diagnosis, growing research in molecular laboratory investigation, and targeted antimicrobial therapy, the visual morbidity has reduced to a decent extent, but it remains a significant cause of sight-threatening keratitis in underdeveloped and rural areas globally.