A Prospective Study on Mycology of Eye Infection in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

ABSTRACT

Background: Objectives: Fungi are commonly found in the environment and most of them are either commensals or nonpathogenic. Eye infections are caused by bacteria, viruses and less commonly by fungi, therefore not given much attention by the practitioners and also by ophthalmolog ists. In the last one - decade incidence of fungal eye infections has increased due to increase in the number of patients with poor immunity. Common conditions which impair the immunity are prolonged use of steroids and antibacterial broad - spectrum antibioti cs, use of immunosuppressive drugs in cancer patients, in patients with organ transplant and some infections like AIDS. Candida, Fusarium and Aspergillus are the fungi frequently found to be associated with fungal eye infections. Trauma is the most signifi cant predisposing factor particularly when accompanied by contamination with vegetable matter. Methods: Samples such as corneal scrapings, Conjunctival swab, Vitreous & Aqueous aspirates were collected aseptically and sent to microbiology laboratory for KO H wet mount examination and fungal culture. KOH preparation was examined directly under microscope and culture were done on SDA, incubated at 25° c for three weeks. Results: Males were more commonly infected (66.5%) as compared to females (33.5%) The overall positivity in direct microscopy ( KOH preparation) was 32% while positivity in culture was 51%.The most frequently isolated fungus was Fusarium (16) followed by A. flavus ( 07), A. fumigatus (06), Candida sp.(06) and Curvalaria (03) Conclusion: If medical therapy fails to control the infection, surgery should be considered to save the eye visual function before the progression of disease.