Emergence of Dematiaceous Fungal Hypopyon in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Tamil Nadu: A Case Study

Fungal keratitis attributed to ocular trauma is common in developing countries. Curvularia is a dematiaceous fungus ubiquitously found in the environment. In humans,Curvularia causes fungal keratitis, sinusitis, onychomycosis, endocarditis, peritonitis, mycetoma, pulmonary infection, and cerebral infection. We report a 28-year-old male patient with corneal ulcer and hypopyon caused by the Curvularia species. He developed ocular pain and diminished vision in the left eye following an injury/trauma caused due to a foreign body(vegetative matter). Ocular examination revealed a corneal ulcer with a feathery margin with hypopyon. Corneal scrapings subjected tomicrobiological examination revealed septate hyphae on KOH preparation. Culture yielded pigmented fungal colonies, which wereidentified to be Curvularia species. The patient was put on conservative management.He responded welland feltsymptomatically better on local examination.His corneal ulcer size reduced,hypopyon in the anterior chamber subsided and his vision acuityimproved.Diagnosis and treatment of fungal keratitis haveprovedto be challenging. Early diagnosis usingmicrobiology helpedto restore the patient's vision, prevented him from vision-threatening complications and helped in the management of the case by medical intervention without surgical intervention. How to cite this article:Kumar D, Thayikkannu AB, Selvabai RAP, Shanmugam P. Emergence of Dematiaceous Fungal Hypopyon in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Tamil Nadu: A Case Study. J Commun Dis. 2023;55(4):126-130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0019.5138.202365