Cultured Organisms and Antibiotic Susceptibility in Infectious Ocular Disease: Results Over a Ten-Year Period

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the ocular regional incidence, causative species and antibiotic susceptibility in patients with infectious ocular disease whose causative organism was isolated. METHODS: A total of 519 eyes in 519 patients with infectious ocular disease, who were diagnosed by smears and cultures from January 2000 to December 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The mean age of the 519 patients was 54.0 years, and 66.1% of the patients were male. The most common systemic disease was diabetes mellitus. The most common previous ocular disease was keratoconjunctivitis. Specimens were most frequently swabbed from the cornea, where 81.2% were bacteria isolates and 18.8% fungi isolates. The most prevalent causative organism was Staphylococcus epidermidis, and the most prevalent fungus was Fusarium species. Vancomycin, ceftazidime, and fourth-generation fluoroquinolone maintained high antibiotic susceptibility. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis were increasing near the end of the reference period, and endophthalmitis was more common in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus. CONCLUSIONS: Identifying the causative organism in infectious ocular disease by smears and cultures is essential. More effective treatment of infectious ocular disease would be possible by analyzing the frequent organism, clinical manifestations, and antibiotic susceptibility. More caution is necessary due to the increase in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus.