Crosslinking and Fulguration in the Treatment of Acanthamoebic Keratitis

Purpose: to study the combined Photo-Activated Chromophore for Keratitis — Corneal Cross-Linking (PACK-CXL) in combination with fulguration of the infiltration zone in the treatment of medically refractive acanthamoebic keratitis. Patients and methods . The study included 9 patients (10 eyes) with medically refractive acanthamoebic keratitis. The diagnosis was confirmed by confocal microscopy data from a microbiological study of scraping of corneal tissue from the lesion site with Romanovsky-Giemsa stain. All patients underwent combined surgical treatment of PACK-CXL with pre-fulguration. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the anterior segment of the eye was also performed using an RTVue-100 apparatus (Optovue USA), determination of visual acuity, photographing before and after surgery. Results . In 6 cases (60 %), a positive effect was noted, relief of the symptoms of the disease and the formation of turbidity within a month after the procedure, as well as an increase in the maximum corrected visual acuity. According in vivo confocal microscopy, 6 months after the intervention, no signs of infection were detected. In 4 cases, the therapeutic effect was absent. Subsequently, 3 patients (3 eyes) underwent therapeutic keratoplasty. In one eye, the infectious process was stopped medically for 6 months. Conclusion. The combined PACK-CXL method together with fulguration can be effective and safe in the treatment of medically refractive acanthamoebic keratitis, allowing keratoplasty to be performed with an optical goal if necessary, after stopping the infection process in a distant period.