Correspondence

Late-onset recurrent Acremonium fungal keratitis after therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty

Case Report

An 86-year-old woman presented with increased pain and foreign body sensation in her right eye for several weeks. Her past medical history was significant for Sjögren syndrome, for which she had been taking azathioprine 50 mg daily for many years. She had no history of previous eye trauma. Past ocular history was significant for wet age-related macular degeneration for which she was undergoing regular treatment with intravitreal bevacizumab. On presentation, visual acuity in the right eye was

Discussion

Fungal keratitis can unfortunately recur after TPK. A retrospective analysis of 1148 cases of fungal keratitis treated with TPK reported that recurrence typically appeared within 2 weeks after surgery in 7.7% of eyes,¹ consistent with previous reports.

It has also been shown that recurrence rates for fungal keratitis in patients who have been given steroids before surgery are significantly higher than those who were not treated with any steroids prior to surgery.² To note, the patient in our

Footnotes and Disclosure

The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.