RESEARCH ARTICLE
Nocardia Endophthalmitis- Prophylactic Prevention with an Innovative Approach
Atul Kamath1, *, Aditi Pai2, Jagadeesh K. Reddy3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2021Volume: 15
First Page: 258
Last Page: 263
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-15-258
DOI: 10.2174/1874364102115010258
Article History:
Received Date: 3/6/2021Revision Received Date: 5/8/2021
Acceptance Date: 21/9/2021
Electronic publication date: 07/12/2021
Collection year: 2021
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Nocardia is a common cause of endophthalmitis in southern India. It is an aggressive disease with a poor prognosis.
Objective:
This study was conducted using an amikacin antibiotic in the drip irrigation of balanced saline solution (BSS) during the surgery to prophylactically study the occurrence of Nocardia endophthalmitis and any subsequent toxic effects of the antibiotics used.
Methods:
Prospective study period was of 6 months, starting from July to December-2018. Preoperative and postoperative specular counts and macular thickness using Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT) were compared with any incidence of Nocardia endophthalmitis. A total of 500 patients operated for manual SICS were randomly assigned into 2 groups. The first group of 250 patients received antibiotic amikacin added to the Balanced Saline Solution (BSS) irrigating solution throughout the course of the surgery. The second control group received no antibiotics. Manual SICS was performed on all 500 patients by a single surgeon and was found to be uneventful. Pre- and postoperative corneal endothelial cell density and mean macular thickness using OCT were taken and recorded of all the patients, respectively, and data obtained were statistically compared.
Results:
No incidence of Nocardia endophthalmitis among the cataract surgeries operated was found. There was no drug-related toxicity to the cornea or macula. Furthermore, no incidence of Nocardia endophthalmitis has been reported since 2018 after using antibiotics.
Conclusion:
A simple routine of adding amikacin in the drip prophylactically during the course of surgery helped us prevent Nocardia endophthalmitis with no side effects. Also, it will be an innovative technique that is economically feasible and effective in regions where Nocardia endophthalmitis is prevalent.
