Posters

A patient with herpes simplex virus keratitis after LASIK

Poster Details

First Author: M. Acar TURKEY

Co Author(s):    M. Kosker   N. Arslan   A. Sanal Dogan   C. Gurdal           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To report a case of rare form of herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK).

Setting:

This was a case report and desinged at Departments of Ophthalmology, Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

Methods:

A 42-year-old woman referred to our clinic with complaints of pain in the left eye, blurred vision, and photophobia. There was a history of uncomplicated LASIK surgery with both eyes two years before and a history of herpetic keratitis of left eye 6months before and treated with ganciclovir gel, systemic acyclovir by an other ophthalmology clinic. There was no history of ocular trauma, ocular surgery. Her visual acuity was 15/20 in the left eye 20/20 in the right eye. She had herpetic keratitis at lower part of the corneal flap of LASIK between 5-7 o’clock in the left eye.

Results:

After the diagnosis of HSV keratitis; the patient was treated with topical ganciclovir gel five times daily and systemic acyclovir five times daily. After four weeks of treatment, the abnormal findings were resolved and her visual acuity was improved to 20/20 for left eye.

Conclusions:

Herpetic keratitis after LASIK is an uncommon clinical situation. A lot of people without clinical HSV infection have latent virus in their tears. Preoperative LASIK stress and postoperative tear dysfunction may be the reason of activation of HSV. This case suggests that HSV infection was activated by LASIK surgery. Oral antiviral prophylaxis may be appropriate when performing LASIK on patients with a history of ocular or systemic HSV infection.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE