Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (Jan 2011)

Natamycin in the treatment of keratomycosis: Correlation of treatment outcome and in vitro susceptibility of fungal isolates

  • Linu Pradhan,
  • Savitri Sharma,
  • Suma Nalamada,
  • Srikant K Sahu,
  • Sujata Das,
  • Prashant Garg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/0301-4738.86328
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 59, no. 6
pp. 512 – 514

Abstract

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In this study, 60 fungal isolates from 60 patients with fungal keratitis were tested in vitro for their susceptibility to natamycin and the mean minimum inhibitory concentrations of natamycin (MICn) were correlated with clinical outcome. The mean MICn for various groups of fungi from patients with either early (16 μg/ml). While the clinical response in all patients with early A. flavus keratitis was good it was poor in late cases (5/8 patients, 62.5%). Fusarium species, Acremonium species and dematiaceous fungi were sensitive with low mean MICn (Fusarium: 5.7-7.2 μg/ml, Acremonium: 5.7-6.8 μg/ml, dematiaceous: (1.6-4 μg/ml). However, 46.6% (7/15) patients in Fusarium and 57.1% (4/7) in Acremonium group needed keratoplasty. We conclude that despite susceptibility of most fungal species causing keratitis to natamycin, the treatment outcome is poor in advanced fungal keratitis.

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