Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

Fusarium Keratitis

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What is Fusarium Keratitis?
Keratitis is a very general term meaning any inflammation of the cornea, the clear, dome-shaped surface that covers the front of the eye. Fungi can infect (and therefore inflame) the cornea. Doctors refer to this as “fungal keratitis,” meaning corneal infection caused by fungi. One type of fungus that can infect the cornea is Fusarium spp. When Fusarium infects the cornea, the eye disease is referred to as Fusarium keratitis. Fusarium keratitis is a serious infection of the cornea.

Fusarium Keratitis and Contact Lens Use
Fusarium spp. are commonly found in soil, in water, and on plants throughout the world, particularly in warmer climates (4). Past studies of Fusarium keratitis have found that most incidences of Fusarium keratitis have been caused by an eye injury with vegetative matter, for example getting hit in the eye with a palm branch (3). Each year a few people do contract Fusarium keratitis from contact lens wear. This number is generally very small, particularly in the northern part of the United States. An estimated 30 million persons in the United States wear soft contact lenses; the annual incidence of microbial keratitis is estimated to be 4 – 21 per 10,000 soft contact lens users, depending on whether users wear lenses overnight (2).

Symptoms of Fusarium Keratitis
According to the American Academy of Ophthamology, the symptoms of Fusarium keratitis include the following:
• Sudden blurry vision
• Unusual redness of the eye
• Pain in your eye
• Excessive tearing and discharge from your eye
• Increased light sensitivity

Treatment of Fusarium Keratitis
First-line treatment includes topical and oral antifungal medications. Patients who do not respond to medical treatment usually require surgical intervention, including corneal transplantation (1). “Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment of fungal infections of the cornea, 15-27% of patients require surgical intervention owing to failure of medical therapy or advanced disease at presentation (1).” In some cases even corneal surgery will not restore vision, and the patient will be permanently blind or otherwise vision impaired. Early diagnosis coupled with appropriate treatment is critical to recovery from Fusarium keratitis.

Sources:

Thomas PA. Fungal infections of the cornea. Eye 2003;17:852-62.
Poggio EC, Glynn RJ, Schein OD, et al. The incidence of ulcerative keratitis among users of daily-wear and extended-wear soft contact lenses. N Engl J Med 1989;321:779-83.
Bharathi MJ, Ramakrishnan R, Vasu S, Meenakshi R, Palaniappan R. Epidemiological characteristics and laboratory diagnosis of fungal keratitis. A three-year study. Indian J Ophthalmol 2003;51:315-321.
Doczi I, Gyetvui T, Kredics L, Nagy E. Involvement of Fusarium spp. in fungal keratitis. Clinical Microbiology & Infection 2004;10: 773-75

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