Infectious keratitis in Western New York: a 10-year review of patient demographics, clinical management, and treatment failure

BackgroundInfectious keratitis (IK) is a blinding disease and an important cause of ocular morbidity. Understanding regional trends in IK are important to understand the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of this disease.MethodsIn this 10-year retrospective review, patient characteristics including sociodemographic factors, medical history, and ocular history were collected as well as the clinical course and outcomes. This study particularly focused on these characteristics as it relates to treatment failure in IK, as defined as requiring more than 2 weeks to heal or surgical intervention, likelihood of having microbiology cultures collected, surgical intervention, and presenting disease severity.Results935 cases of IK were identified at the University of Rochester. Age (p=0.004), history of prior corneal transplant (p=0.009), severe vision loss on presentation (pConclusionsThis study defined the patient characteristics and clinical course of patients with IK over 10 years at the University of Rochester providing insight into regional trends of the patient population as well as clinical outcomes.