Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access

Abstract

Incidence of Infectious Corneal Ulcers, Portsmouth Study, UK

YW Ibrahim, DL Boase and IA Cree

Aim: To identify the incidence of infectious keratitis in a population based in southern England.
Methods: A retrospective review between January 1997 and December 2003 and a prospective study between January and December 2006 were undertaken at the eye casualty department of Queen Alexandra Hospital (QAH), Portsmouth, UK to identify the incidence of infectious keratitis.
Results: QAH is a tertiary teaching hospital that serves Portsmouth and the catchment area of the county of Hampshire with an average population of 489,391 in the 7 year period of the retrospective study and 499100 in the one year prospective study. Infectious keratitis occurred in 1,786 patients in the retrospective study with an average of 255 patients per year and in 201 patients in the one year prospective study. The annual incidence of infectious keratitis was 52.1 and 40.3 per 100,000 persons in the retrospective and prospective studies respectively. The rate of bacterial and viral ulcers was lower in the prospective study than the average of either ulcer type in the retrospective study. A significant trend over time was found in the retrospective study that was mainly made by bacterial rather than viral ulcers. The rate of viral ulcers showed initial steady increase between 1997 and 2000 followed by continuous decline over the next three years of the retrospective study and maintained in the prospective study.
Conclusions: Despite widely accepted views of the predominance of viral keratitis in the developed countries, these are decreasing in the population studied and contact lens-related bacterial corneal ulcers are more frequent than viral ulcers.