Green thermal laser can be used as adjunct to treat resistant infectious keratitis
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Green thermal laser adjunctive therapy was used to treat resistant infectious keratitis, according to a study.
The retrospective case series included 150 patients over a 4-year period with infectious keratitis at Tanta University Ophthalmology Hospital, Egypt, who had no improvement with antimicrobial treatment alone for 7 days.
Patients received laser photocoagulation with a 500 µm spot size for a duration of 200 milliseconds with power between 900 mW and 1,200 mW. The number of pulses ranged from 28 to 350.
Seventy-one infectious keratitis cases (47.3%) were bacterial and fungal infections, 44 (29.3%) were purely fungal, and 35 (23.3%) were purely bacterial. Common risk factors were plant origin trauma and contact lens use.
One hundred thirty-eight patients (92%) improved within 1 week after green thermal laser therapy. No notable response within 1 week prompted a second session with the same parameters for 12 patients.
Amniotic membrane transplantation was used in 26 patients (17.3%), including the 12 who received a second laser session, 11 who had progressive corneal thinning and three who had corneal micro-perforations. Two cases with uncontrolled inflammation and corneal macro-perforations required tectonic corneal grafts.
In 78 patients (52%), corrected distance visual acuity of counting fingers or better was achieved, and 72 patients (48%) maintained their baseline vision. No loss of corrected distance visual acuity occurred.
The authors said these results align with previously published studies, although the number of cases and time frame of their study provided “more comprehensive data.”
Limitations included the study’s retrospective nature, loss of follow-up, and absence of control or comparative groups.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts