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
. 2024 May-Jun;38(3):1229-1235.
doi: 10.21873/invivo.13559.

Association Between Serratia marcescens Contamination and Hygiene Compliance in Orthokeratology

Hung-Chih Chen  1   2 , Pei-Yu Yang  3 , Jung-Sheng Chen  4 , DA-Tian Bau  5   6   7 , Shih-Chun Chao  8   9   10
Affiliations

Association Between Serratia marcescens Contamination and Hygiene Compliance in Orthokeratology

Hung-Chih Chen et al. In Vivo. 2024 May-Jun.

Abstract

Background/aim: Given the characteristics of Serratia marcescens (S. marcescens), this study aimed at investigating its presence in the hands and contact lens cases of orthokeratology wearers, along with the status of bacterial contamination.

Patients and methods: The 39 patients received the questionnaires about the background of orthokeratology and hygiene habits. A total of 39 contact lens cases and 39 hand samples from the patients were collected at Show Chwan Memorial Hospital from June to August in 2020 and sent to National Chung Cheng University for DNA extraction and PCR identification.

Results: The results indicated a detection rate of 5.13% for S. marcescens in the contact lens cases and 12.82% in the hand samples. Additionally, 66.67% of contact lens case samples and 30.77% of hand samples found positive for 16s bacterial amplicons. The relationship between hand contamination and the duration of contact lens usage were revealed for both S. marcescens (p=0.021) and 16s bacterial amplicons (p=0.048).

Conclusion: The results indicated that hand hygiene is more critical than focusing on contact lens hygiene when it comes to preventing S. marcescens infections. Nevertheless, both proper hand and contact lens hygiene practices can reduce the detection of bacterial eye pathogens, especially a common intestinal bacterium.

Keywords: Hygiene compliance; Serratia Marcescens; orthokeratology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All the Authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this study.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Cho P, Cheung SW, Edwards M. The longitudinal orthokeratology research in children (LORIC) in Hong Kong: a pilot study on refractive changes and myopic control. Curr Eye Res. 2005;30(1):71–80. doi: 10.1080/02713680590907256. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cheng KH, Leung SL, Hoekman HW, Beekhuis WH, Mulder PG, Geerards AJ, Kijlstra A. Incidence of contact-lens-associated microbial keratitis and its related morbidity. Lancet. 1999;354(9174):181–185. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(98)09385-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dart JK, Radford CF, Minassian D, Verma S, Stapleton F. Risk factors for microbial keratitis with contemporary contact lenses. Ophthalmology. 2008;115(10):1647–1654.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2008.05.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lam DS, Houang E, Fan DS, Lyon D, Seal D, Wong E, Hong Kong Microbial Keratitis Study Group Incidence and risk factors for microbial keratitis in Hong Kong: comparison with Europe and North America. Eye (Lond) 2002;16(5):608–618. doi: 10.1038/sj.eye.6700151. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Watt KG, Swarbrick HA. Trends in microbial keratitis associated with orthokeratology. Eye Contact Lens 33(6 Pt 2): 2007;373-377:373–377. doi: 10.1097/ICL.0b013e318157cd8d. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources