Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the bacterial spectrum and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of bacterial keratitis in South Korea for ten years.
Methods: 143 eyes of 143 patients who have been diagnosed with bacterial keratitis from January 2010 to April 2019 were retrospectively enrolled. Corneal scraping was done for Gram stain in all patients, and cultures were plated on blood, chocolate, Sabouraud dextrose agar, and thioglycolate broth. Empirical fourth generation fluoroquinolone or fortified vancomycin and ceftazidime were treated for every patient.
Results: Ocular trauma (n=29, 24.0%) and contact lens (n=18, 14.9%) were the most common causes in patients with bacterial keratitis. Most of the bacterial keratitis was gram-positive (n=85, 70%) and the gram-negative is only 6% (7 eyes). Most of central and peripheral keratitis were Gram positive (n=57, 65% and n=29, 85%). There was no gram-negative stain in peripheral keratitis. Vancomycin and ciprofloxacin were the most susceptible (n=68, 56.2% and n=51, 42.1%) and least resistant (n=0, 0% and n=18, 14.9%) in the antibiotic susceptibility test. Treatment time (month) and best corrected visual acuity after treatment in the gatifloxacin group were better than those in the moxifloxacin group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The most common cause of bacterial keratitis was ocular trauma and contact lenses. There was a different bacterial spectrum in central and peripheral keratitis. Gatifloxacin was more effective for early corneal healing and recovery of visual acuity than moxifloxacin.