What are the causes of keratitis in children?

In clinical practice, in addition to finding the best treatment method for keratitis in children, finding the cause is also very important for curing keratitis in children. Therefore, parents must eliminate the causes of keratitis in children one by one. So, what are the causes of keratitis in children? Let me introduce them to you below.

Keratitis is a serious eye disease and one of the leading causes of blindness. There are many causes of keratitis in children. Trauma, other eye or systemic infectious diseases may lead to corneal infection. The pathogens that cause corneal infection may be bacteria, fungi or viruses. Some cases are caused by allergic reactions, so it is necessary to distinguish the causes and treat them accordingly.

1. External factors: Most corneal infections caused by external factors must meet two conditions:

(1) Damage and shedding of corneal epithelial cells.

(2) Simultaneous infection.

Infectious corneal ulcers are likely to occur only when both of these conditions are met.

2. Endogenous factors: refers to endogenous diseases coming from the whole body. The cornea has no blood vessels, so acute infectious diseases are less likely to invade the cornea. However, corneal tissue is involved in the systemic immune response. Although the degree of its immune response is lower than that of other tissues, it is precisely because it has no blood vessels and has a slower metabolism that the immune response changes last for a long time. The cornea is in a sensitive state for a long time, making it easy to develop allergic diseases such as bullous keratitis.

3. Caused by spread from adjacent tissues: Due to embryological homology and anatomical continuity, diseases that spread to the corneal epithelium mostly come from the conjunctiva. For example, severe conjunctivitis is often accompanied by superficial keratitis.

Common clinical keratitis formation:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa keratitis: This disease is caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa directly invading the cornea and causing infection. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is highly virulent but weakly invasive; it must pass through damaged epithelium to invade corneal tissue and cause infection. Therefore, various corneal trauma, keratitis, keratomelachic disease, etc. can all become causes of infection.

Serpiginous keratitis: mainly caused by highly virulent bacteria. Pneumococcus, hemolytic or viridans streptococci, gonococci, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, etc. can all cause disease. There is often a history of corneal surface trauma or foreign matter such as dust entering the eye before the onset of the disease. People with general malnutrition and weakness are also prone to the disease; patients with chronic dacryocystitis are prone to this disease.

To sum up, when looking for the cause of pediatric keratitis, in addition to internal and external factors, it is also critical to observe whether it is caused by the spread of adjacent tissues. Therefore, parents need to look for the cause of pediatric keratitis from multiple aspects.