A team of Korean clinical investigators found nearly 10 percent of cases of Staphylococcus aureus infections of the blood spread to the eyeball and can severely impair vision or even cause blindness.
Investigators analyzed post hoc the incidence and risk factors for infections of the eye among 612 patients with S. aureus blood infection who had been examined at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea.
Here are four insights:
1. Fifteen of those patients had endophthalmitis and another 41 had chorioretinitis.
2. While no patients were blinded, some patients sustained decreased vision due to the ocular infection.
3. Risk factors for eyeball infection with S. aureus include endocarditis and a S. aureus infection in more than one part of the body.
4. Yong Pil Chong, MD, PhD, corresponding author and assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases, Asian Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, said early detection and treatment of ocular infection is critical in maintaining good vision, and thinks an eye examination is important in patients with S. aureus bacteremia.
