**10. References**


**3** 

**Keratoplasty in Contact Lens** 

Beata Kettesy, Laszlo Modis Jr.,

 *University of Debrecen* 

*Hungary* 

Andras Berta and Adam Kemeny-Beke

**Related Acanthamoeba Keratitis** 

*Department of Ophthalmology, Medical and Health Science Center* 

Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) infection is a rather frequently occurring disease all over the world which can still cause serious or even total loss of vision despite improved diagnostic and therapeutic options. It may cause mostly keratitis, scleritis or chorioretinitis in people

It mainly affects contact lens wearers with poor hygiene. Corneal trauma due to foreign body injury and exposure to contaminated water may also be associated with *Acanthamoeba* 

Those with Acanthamoeba keratitis generally are immunocompetent. Nevertheless, these individuals do not develop protective immunity, and thus reinfection can occur. In the mid 1980s, an epidemic of Acanthamoeba keratitis occurred in the US which was attributed to

Conditions promoting the disease include not only poor contact lens hygiene but also the

In the United Kingdom, there was a marked rise in the number of cases in the first half of the 1990s, associated with the introduction and increasing popularity of disposable soft contact lenses shown to be due to irregular and/or chlorine based disinfection. After 1995 there was a decrease, perhaps resulting from an improvement in CL hygiene following the widespread dissemination of the results of a paper on Acanthamoeba keratitis as well as the

Free-living amoebae belonging to the genus *Acanthamoeba* are the causative agents of granulomatosus amoebic encephalitis, a fatal disease of the central nervous system, cutaneous lesions and sinusitis in immonodeficient patients and amoebic keratitis, a painful

*Acanthamoeba* was first described by Castellani when he reported the presence of an amoeba in *Cryptococcus pararoseus* cultures. The genus *Acanthamoeba* was established later by

The first suggestion that *Acanthamoeba* could cause disease in humans came in 1958 during polio vaccine safety trials. Plaques appeared in cell cultures used to prepare vaccine and

use of home-made saline solutions and corneal abrasions (Stehr-Green at al., 1989).

gaining penetrance of new CL hygiene systems (Radford et al., 1995, 1998, 2002).

sight-threatening disease of the eyes in otherwise healthy individuals.

Volkonsky in 1931 (Marciano-Cabral & Cabral, 2003).

**1. Introduction** 

infection.

with competent immune systems.

**1.1 Features of Acanthamoeba** 

increased contact lens use and poor lens hygiene.

