Case of the Month - February 2020

Case of the month archive

A 35 year old woman presented with sensitivity to light, redness, itching, excessive tearing, and blurry vision in the left eye for 3 weeks. She wore contact lenses regularly. When her symptoms started, she was prescribed gatifloxacin drops and ciprofloxacin drops, but had no improvement.

A slit lamp examination of the left eye revealed edema of the upper lid, bulbar and perilimbal injection, a central corneal ulcer with 9 mm central epithelial defect, and fibrin, infiltrate, and a 2 mm hypopyon. There was also a 3 mm plaque inferiorly.

A biopsy was taken and sent to pathology and microbiology. No bacteria or fungi grew from cultures. Two views from a corneal scraping with periodic acid-Schiff stain appear below. What is the organism?

  • February-2020a.png
  • February-2020b.png