Clinical Case of Postoperative Infectious Crystalline Keratopathy

Abstract

Infectious crystalline keratopathy (ICK) is a sluggish infectious inflammation of the cornea. Described for the first time in 1983, it is currently a rare pathology. Most often, the etiological factor is gram-positive bacterial flora, which causes the typical formation of “crystals” in the anterior layers of the corneal stroma. Less often, infiltrates are formed by gram-negative bacterial flora, which is characterized by its location mainly in the posterior parts of the stroma. Atypical etiological agents include Mycobacteria and fungal microflora. The main predisposing factors for the development of ICK are drug immunosuppression and previous corneal surgery (through keratoplasty, layered keratoplasty, laser keratomilesis in situ — LASIK). This article describes an atypical clinical case of monolateral postoperative infectious crystalline keratopathy. The patient’s medical history includes bilateral LASIK surgery followed by drug therapy for postoperative keratitis of the right eye for 1 month.