DR. ADITYA GHORPADE

Dr. ANITHA VENUGOPAL

Abstract

The majority of microbial keratitis cases are caused by fungal organisms in tropical and subtropical continents. Fusarium, Aspergillus and Dematitious fungi are the most common species causing keratitis. The members of the genus colletotrichum are fungal plant pathogens causing anthracnoses; in rare events, it can cause keratitis and subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis. We report three cases of C asianum keratitis in humans. All three patients had a history of injury from vegetative matter. They developed a greyish white fluffy oval shaped infiltrate with irregular margins in the superficial 1/3rd of the stroma. Microbiological work-up with smears and culture revealed the causative organism to be Colletotrichum asianum. We observed a good response in both the patients with natamycin (5%) and voriconazole (1%), which are commonly available antifungal agents. To our knowledge, this is the first case report describing infective keratitis secondary to C. asianum.