Eye infections endangering the sight. A retrospective study from a 6-year period with special attention to the use of contact lenses
Movin, M.; Jensen, O.L.
Ugeskrift for Laeger 150(42): 2522-2525
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-5782 PMID: 3264637 Document Number: 323010
All patients (n = 91) admitted to an eye department with the diagnoses: keratitis, corneal abscess and/or panophthalmia during six-year period were reviewed. Twenty patients employed soft contact lenses (CL), 18 of the "extended wear" type. None used rigid or hard CL. The group of CL wearers (group I) was significantly younger than the group of non-CL wearers (group II) (p < 0.05). All patients in group II (n = 71) presented at least one predisposing eye disease, whereas only six patients in group I had suffered from an eye disease prior to the infection involved. Cultures from conjunctiva and CL adjuvantia in group I revealed growth of different strains of Pseudomonas in 56% of the cases compared to 5% in group II, where bacterial cultures displayed a more varied picture, mainly coagulase negative Staphylococci. In group II, 49 (69%) of the patients displayed permanently impaired visual acuity as a consequence of current infection; twenty-five of these required enucleation. In group I, 9 out of 20 showed impaired visual acuity following the infection, and none were submitted to enucleation.