Ting, D.S.J.; Galal, M.; Kulkarni, B.; Elalfy, M.S.; Lake, D.; Hamada, S.; Said, D.G.; Dua, H.S. Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Fungal Keratitis in the United Kingdom 2011–2020: A 10-Year Study. J. Fungi2021, 7, 966.
Ting, D.S.J.; Galal, M.; Kulkarni, B.; Elalfy, M.S.; Lake, D.; Hamada, S.; Said, D.G.; Dua, H.S. Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Fungal Keratitis in the United Kingdom 2011–2020: A 10-Year Study. J. Fungi 2021, 7, 966.
Ting, D.S.J.; Galal, M.; Kulkarni, B.; Elalfy, M.S.; Lake, D.; Hamada, S.; Said, D.G.; Dua, H.S. Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Fungal Keratitis in the United Kingdom 2011–2020: A 10-Year Study. J. Fungi2021, 7, 966.
Ting, D.S.J.; Galal, M.; Kulkarni, B.; Elalfy, M.S.; Lake, D.; Hamada, S.; Said, D.G.; Dua, H.S. Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Fungal Keratitis in the United Kingdom 2011–2020: A 10-Year Study. J. Fungi 2021, 7, 966.
Abstract
Fungal keratitis (FK) is a serious ocular infection that often poses significant diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas. This study aimed to examine the causes, clinical characteristics, outcomes, and prognostic factors of FK in the UK. All culture-positive and culture-negative presumed FK (with complete data) that presented to Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, and Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, between 2011 and 2020 were included. A total of 117 patients (n=117 eyes) with FK were included in this study. The mean age was 59.0±19.6 years (range, 4-92 years) and 51.3% patients were female. Fifty-three fungal isolates were identified from 52 (44.4%) culture-positive cases, with Candida spp. (33, 62.3%), Fusarium spp. (9, 17.0%), and Aspergillus spp. (5, 9.4%) being the most common organisms. Ocular surface disease (60, 51.3%), prior corneal surgery (44, 37.6%), and systemic immunosuppression (42, 35.9%) were the three most common risk factors. Hospitalisation for intensive treatment was required for 95 (81.2%) patients, with a duration of 18.9±16.3 days. Sixty-six (56.4%) patients required additional surgical interventions for eradicating the infection. Emergency therapeutic/tectonic keratoplasty was performed in 29 (24.8%) cases, though 13 (44.8%) of them failed at final follow-up. The final corrected-distance-visual-acuity (CDVA) was 1.67±1.08 logMAR. Multivariable logistic regression analyses demonstrated increased age, large infiltrate size (>3mm), and poor presenting CDVA (<1.0 logMAR) as significant negative predictive factors for poor visual outcome (CDVA of <1.0 logMAR) and poor corneal healing (>60 days of healing time or occurrence of corneal perforation requiring emergency keratoplasty; all p<0.05). In conclusion, FK represents a difficult-to-treat ocular infection that often results in poor visual outcome, with a high need for surgical interventions. Innovative treatment strategies are urgently required to tackle this unmet need.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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