title: Exogenous, ocular, and systemic factors associated with keratitic ulceration.
abstract: Information on type and frequency of empirically observed exogenous, ocular, and systemic predisposing factors for keratitic ulceration is important for clinical identification of groups at risk and may form a basis for planning experimental studies on the pathogenesis of ulceration. Therefore a retrospective study comprising 104 patients with 25 herpetic and 79 non-herpetic corneal ulcerations was performed. Patients with herpetic ulcerations were mainly males and were younger than patients with non-herpetic corneal ulceration. Keratoplasty and steroid treatment was found as frequent co-existing predisposing factors in the herpetic group. In the non-herpetic group an exogenous factor was found in 56%, an ocular factor in 56%, and a systemic predisposing factor in 46% of the patients. In only 2.5% of these patients was there found no predisposing factor. Pathogenetic mechanisms of predisposing factors for non-herpetic corneal ulceration is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Arhus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: J O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Hjortdal
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ehlers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003261:Contact Lenses; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D003320:Corneal Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007635:Keratitis, Dendritic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies