Normal conjunctival flora and their antibiotic sensitivity in Omanis undergoing cataract surgery.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the normal conjunctival flora and to ascertain their sensitivity to antibiotics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective study was undertaken with 56 patients scheduled for cataract surgery. In each of these patients, conjunctival swab was taken from both eyes before instilling any antibiotic drops or local anesthetics and were sent for culture sensitivity by inoculating the samples in blood agar plates. The un-operated eyes served as controls for the study. The results were tabulated and analyzed by applying confidence intervals at 95% confidence limits. RESULTS: Of the 112 eyes studied, positive cultures were obtained from 54 eyes (48.3%) preoperatively, and included both operated and control eyes. Coagulase-negative staphylococcus was isolated in 44 eyes (81.5%). Maximum sensitivity was found with vancomycin, gentamycin, chloramphenicol, and ciprofloxacin and maximum resistance with fusidic acid, penicillin, and oxacillin. CONCLUSION: We conclude that coagulase-negative staphylococcus are the most common bacteria isolated from the conjunctival sac, and vancomycin followed by gentamycin and ciprofloxacin are most effective against normal conjunctiva l flora, and fusidic acid the most ineffective of all the antibiotics tested.

Tear film status in patients attending the eye clinic in South sharqiya region.

OBJECTIVE: To study the tear film profile of patients attending the eye clinic of Sur hospital of South Sharqiya region of Oman and to study the epidemiology of patients having abnormal tear film profile. METHOD: Patients attending the eye clinic of Sur hospital and B. Ali eye clinic were asked about the clinical symptoms relevant to dry eye and subjected to tear film tests namely TBUT (Tear Break up Time) and Schirmer's 1 to assess tear film profile. Patients with irregular corneas were excluded from the study. Overall 127 patients were included in the study. RESULTS: 42.5% (95% CI: 33.9% to 51.1%) of patients examined had abnormal tear film profile with patients >30 years 56.75% (95% CI: 45.4% to 68%) showing abnormality more often and females 40.3% (95% CI: 29.3% to 51.2%) outnumbered males. Burning was the main symptom in patients with abnormal tear film profile. CONCLUSION: We infer that a large number of patients had abnormal tear film profile most of them were asymptomatic and trachoma figured prominently amongst the diseases in cases with abnormal tear film profile.