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Purpose: To determine the frequency of different ocular conditions leading to ocular morbidity in a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was done in Dow University of medical sciences, from May 2018 to October 2018. Methods: A total of 278 patients presenting in the eye out-patient department were included. Patients with unaided visual acuity of 6/6 in both eye and no ocular abnormality were excluded from the study. Children with congenital syndromes like Down's syndrome, etc. leading to eye diseases were also excluded. All children underwent complete ocular examination. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 22. Frequency and percentages were computed for gender and different ocular diseases e.g., myopia, hypermetropia, strabismus, Vernal Kerato-conjunctivitis, astigmatism, red eye, subconjunctival hemorrhage etc. Post-stratification chi-square test was applied with p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: Out of 278 participants of the study, there were 154 (55.4%) males and 124 (44.6%) females. Average age of the patients was 11.15 ± 3.44 years. Myopia and red eyes were the major causes of pediatric ocular morbidity i.e. 33.81% and 26.6% respectively. Comparison between two age groups showed that Myopia was higher in children with 11 to 15 years. Myopia and astigmatism were more common in females while subconjunctival hemorrhage was more in males. Conclusion: Refractive errors are the commonest cause of childhood visual impairment in our setup. Correcting these preventable diseases can have a positive impact on the performance of children at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously reported a high incidence of kerato-conjunctivitis in patients receiving high-dose cytarabine following total body irradiation (TBI) as a conditioning for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) even on prophylaxis with topical corticosteroid. This study aimed to evaluate whether addition of eye rinse, which was designed to remove cytarabine from ocular surface, further reduces the incidence of kerato-conjunctivitis in the same setting. Seventy-six patients receiving cytarabine at a dose of 3 g/m(2) every 12 h for 4 days after receiving TBI (12 Gy) as conditioning for HSCT were evaluated. All patients received betamethasone sodium phosphate eye drops. Twenty-three patients were further instructed to rinse their eyes with sterile saline every 10-15 min during and for two additional hours after the completion of each cytarabine infusion. Among 23 patients with eye rinse, Grades 2-3 and 1-3 kerato-conjunctivitis were observed in 4 (17.4%) and 5 patients (21.7%), respectively. These incidences were significantly lower than those [35 (66.0%) and 41 (77.4%)] observed in 53 patients without eye rinse (P < 0.001 and P < 0.00001, respectively). These results strongly suggest that eye rinse effectively reduces the incidence and severity of cytarabine-induced kerato-conjunctivitis in HSCT recipients who receive high-dose cytarabine following TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a 25-year-old systemically healthy male who presented with periocular necrotizing fasciitis (NF) in the left eyelid. This was associated with the presence of immunologically mediated marginal kerato-conjunctivitis, in the same eye. This potentially dangerous lid infection and the associated ocular surface infection resolved successfully, with medical management. We report this case to highlight the successful conservative management of periocular NF and the hitherto unreported anterior segment involvement.

The winter 1993-94 was hard with periods of severe cold and a thick, snow layer. In the beginning of January 1994, approximately 500 reindeer calves were separated from the main herd and corralled for supplementary feeding. During this period around 30 calves died by emaciation and other circumstances related to the change in feeding regimes. Fourteen days later, the calves were rounded up, lassoed and transported around 50 km to another corral. The animals, under severe stress and underfed were offered an insufficiently pelleted feed. After two days, some animals showed signs of eye irritation and on the third and fourth days, several calves had developed unilateral or bilateral kerato-conjunctivitis and blindness. The remaining 390 calves, were slaughtered at the end of January. During the time spent in the second corral, around 80 calves died by emaciation, some of them were blind. Around 300 calves were then, or had been, affected. Of these about 240 were unilaterally blind and 60 bilaterally blind. Bacteriological, virological, electron-microscopical and histopathological investigations showed that fodder particles in the conjunctival sac caused the primary lesions which were secondarily invaded by opportunistic bacteria. The stressful situation of the calves may have contributed to the severity and the rapid development of the lesions.

This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the incidence of kerato-conjunctivitis in patients receiving TBI followed by high-dose cytarabine, and to clarify how effectively topical corticosteroid eye drops prevent kerato-conjunctivitis in these patients. Fifty-three patients who received cytarabine at a dose of 3 g/m2 every 12 h for 4 days after receiving TBI (12 Gy) as a conditioning for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were evaluated. For the prophylaxis of kerato-conjunctivitis, all patients received betamethasone sodium phosphate eye drops every 6 h, starting 1 day before the first dose of cytarabine and continuing until 1 day after the last dose of cytarabine or the complete resolution of ocular symptoms. For grading of kerato-conjuncitivitis, the National Cancer Institute-Common Toxicity Criteria were used. Among the 53 patients, the grades of kerato-conjunctivitis were grade 0 in 13 patients, grade 1 in 6 patients (11.3%), grade 2 in 10 patients (18.9%) and grade 3 in 25 patients (47.2%). These results strongly suggest that topical corticosteroid eye drops could not effectively prevent the development of cytarabine-induced kerato-conjunctivitis in HSCT recipients who receive high-dose cytarabine following TBI. Further investigation into a more effective prophylaxis for cytarabine-induced kerato-conjunctivitis in this setting is required.Bone Marrow Transplantation (2008) 42, 197–199; doi:10.1038/bmt.2008.152; published online 26 May 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]