Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep;107(9):1253-1257.
doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-320793. Epub 2022 May 13.

Incidence and clinical characteristics of paediatric keratitis

Laurel B Tanke  1 , Eric J Kim  2 , Samantha D Butterfield  1 , Grayson B Ashby  1 , Erick D Bothun  2 , David O Hodge  3 , Brian G Mohney  4
Affiliations

Incidence and clinical characteristics of paediatric keratitis

Laurel B Tanke et al. Br J Ophthalmol. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Background/aims: To report the incidence and clinical characteristics of paediatric keratitis diagnosed over a 10-year period in a well-defined population.

Design: Retrospective, population-based study.

Methods: Setting: multicentre.

Population: patients (<19 years) diagnosed with keratitis as residents of Olmsted County from 1 January 2000, through 31 December 2009.

Main outcome measures: calculated annual age-specific and gender-specific incidence rates, demographic information and initial and final visual acuity.

Results: A total of 294 diagnoses of keratitis occurred in 285 children during the 10-year period, yielding an incidence of 78.0 per 100 000 younger than 19 years (95% CI 69.0 to 87.1) or approximately 1 in 1282 children. The incidence increased throughout the 10-year study period (p<0.001). The mean age at diagnosis was 15.3 years (range, 0.2-18.9) and 172 (60.4%) were women. The observed forms included keratitis due to contact lens wear in 134 (45.6%), infectious keratitis in 72 (24.5%), keratitis not otherwise specified in 65 (22.1%) and keratitis sicca in 23 (7.8%). The visual acuity was reduced to ≤20/40 in 61 (21.4) of the 285 patients at the initial examination and in 24 (8.4%) at the final examination. Children with infectious keratitis had the poorest presenting vision and the best final vision, whereas the reverse was true for those with keratitis sicca.

Conclusions: Keratitis, regardless of aetiology, was observed in approximately 1 in 1300 children by 19 years of age in this population-based cohort. Nearly half were related to contact lens wear and a decrease in vision to ≤ 20/40 occurred in 1 in 12 patients.

Keywords: Contact lens; Epidemiology; Inflammation; Vision.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.
Incidence of keratitis due to contact lens wear, infectious keratitis, and keratitis not otherwise specified from 2000 through 2009 in Olmsted County, Minnesota. All trends statistically significant using Poisson regression models (p<0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Singh P, Gupta A, Tripathy K. Keratitis. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, 2020.
    1. Hsiao CH, Yeung L, Ma DH, et al. Pediatric microbial keratitis in Taiwanese children: a review of hospital cases. Arch Ophthalmol 2007;125(5):603–9. - PubMed
    1. Hepschke JL, Ung L, Cabrera-Aguas M, et al. Pediatric Microbial Keratitis: Experience From Tertiary Referral Centers in New South Wales, Australia. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2020;39(10):883–8. - PubMed
    1. Green M, Apel A, Stapleton F. Pediatric Microbial Keratitis in Queensland, Australia (2005 to 2015). Cornea 2019;38(12):1519–23. - PubMed
    1. Zaidman GW. The pediatric corneal infiltrate. Curr Opin Ophthalmol 2011;22(4):261–6. - PubMed

Publication types

Supplementary concepts