Etiological profiles and pathogen detection of infectious endophthalmitis

Abstract

To retrospectively analyze the etiological characteristics of infectious endophthalmitis so as to improve the positive detection rate of its pathogens in laboratory test. The epidemiological features and laboratory findings of 319 inpatients (319 eyes) diagnosed with infectious endophthalmitis at our institute from January 2000 to December 2010 were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Ocular trauma (n = 230, 72.10%) was a major risk factor for infectious endophthalmitis. Bacteria and fungi were isolated from intraocualr specimens with the positive rates of 43.57% (139/319) and 18.22% (49/269) respectively. The positive rates of bacteria culture were 29.00% for nutrient broth medium and 50.23% for blood enrichment medium respectively. And the difference was statistically significant (χ(2) = 12.58, P < 0.01). The sensitivity of isolated bacteria to levofloxacin was 81.82%. The geometric mean of minimal inhibitory concentrations of amphotericin B, fluconazole, ketoconazole and itraconazole against fungi were 1.05, 5.07, 3.00 and 2.42 µg/ml respectively. The major cause of infectious endophthalmitis is ocular trauma and the dominant pathogen is bacteria. The use of blood enrichment medium may improve the positive rate of bacteria culture. Levofloxacin and amphotericin B are indicated for the treatment of bacterial and fungal endophthalmitis.