Atypical microbial keratitis

Abstract

Atypical microbial keratitis refers to corneal infections caused by micro-organisms not commonly encountered in clinical practice. Unlike infections caused by common bacteria, cases of atypical microbial keratitis are often associated with worse clinical outcomes and visual prognosis. This is due to the challenges in the identification of causative organisms with standard diagnostic techniques, resulting in delays in the initiation of appropriate therapies. Furthermore, due to the comparatively lower incidence of atypical microbial keratitis, there is limited literature on effective management strategies for some of these difficult to manage corneal infections. This review highlights the current management and available evidence of atypical microbial keratitis, focusing on atypical mycobacteria keratitis, nocardia keratitis, achromobacter keratitis, and pythium keratitis. It will also describe the management of two uncommonly encountered conditions, infectious crystalline keratopathy and post-refractive infectious keratitis. This review can be used as a guide for clinicians managing patients with such challenging corneal infections.

Keywords: Achromobacter; Achromobacter xylosoxidans; Atypical keratitis; Atypical mycobacteria; Cornea; Infections; Infectious crystalline keratopathy; Infectious keratitis; Infective keratitis; Keratitis; LASIK; Microbial keratitis; Nocardia; Pythium; Refractive surgery.