bacterial conjunctivitis
Last edited 10/2022 and last reviewed 10/2022
This may be due to a range of organisms. Acute forms are often self limited and treatment serves only to shorten the course
- exceptions are staphylococcal conjunctivitis which may progress to blepharoconjunctivitis and enter a chronic phase, and gonococcal conjunctivitis which may result in conreal perforation.
- meningococcal conjunctivitis may be seen in children and carries the risk of meningitis.
Topical antibiotics in conjunctivitis:
in randomized clinical trial and systematic review and meta-analysis (1)
- topical antibiotics were associated with significantly shorter durations of conjunctival symptoms in children with acute infective conjunctivitis
- RCT (n=88), moxifloxacin eye drops reduced time to clinical cure vs placebo (3.8 vs 5.7 days; p=0.04) & in meta-analysis (4 studies;n=584), topical antibiotics reduced proportion of children with symptoms of conjunctivitis on days 3 to 6 vs placebo (OR 0.59;95% CI,0.39-0.91)
- study authors concluded that
- findings suggest that topical antibiotic therapy should be considered for acute infective conjunctivitis in children because antibiotics were associated with significantly shorter recovery time
Chronic forms are rarely self-limited.
Reference:
- Honkila M, Koskela U, Kontiokari T, et al. Effect of Topical Antibiotics on Duration of Acute Infective Conjunctivitis in Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial and a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):e2234459. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.34459