Twenty Years of Acanthamoeba Keratitis

Purpose: We described the rate of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) in a referral eye center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, through a retrospective review of clinical and laboratorial records of patients over 2 decades.Methods: From 1987 to 2006, a total of 581 requests for amoebic laboratory workup in cases of infections keratitis were investigated. Statistical analyses were applied to analyze a tendency of AK cases.Results: Acanthamoeba species were cultured from corneal scrapings of 185 patients, 5 of them with bilateral infection. Eighty-three percent of those patients were related with contact lens wear.Conclusions: The results suggested that patients with AK have persisted and increased over time at our ophthalmology center. Contact lenses showed to be a potential risk factor. Amoebic corneal infection can be considered as a new but well-established disease ill Brazilian ophthalmology and visual sciences.Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Paulista Sch Med, Dept Ophthalmol, Sau Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Sao Paulo, Inst Biomed Sci, Sau Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Calif Davis, Med Ctr, Dept Ophthalmol & Vis Sci, Sacramento, CA 95817 USAUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Paulista Sch Med, Dept Ophthalmol, Sau Paulo, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc