Diagnosing and managing microbial keratitis

Infections of the cornea can lead to corneal opacity and blindness if not identified quickly and managed appropriately. The terms ‘microbial keratitis’, ‘infective keratitis’ and ‘suppurative keratitis’ are all used to describe suppurative infections of the cornea. In this issue we use the term microbial keratitis. These infections are characterised by the presence of white or yellowish infiltrates in the corneal stroma, with or without an overlaying corneal epithelial defect, and associated with signs of inflammation (Figure 1).