Optical aberrations in patients with recurrent herpes simplex keratitis and apparently normal vision

Abstract

Using patients as their own controls, the outcomes of this study indicate that eyes with recurrent HSK with no apparent decrease in visual acuity (0 logMAR) have significantly greater optical aberrations than eyes with no past history of herpetic disease. This outcome may explain some visual complaints of HSK patients, such as a decrease in contrast quality or reduced colour perception, compared with the unaffected contralateral eye despite apparently normal vision in both eyes.

Persistent Impairment of Quality of Life in Patients with Herpes Simplex Keratitis

“…In addition, the lower score related to "limitation" and "driving" is likely due to the visual problems in the affected eye. 5,12 The decrease in QoL in the HSK group, based on NEI VFQ-25 results in the current study, was worse than previous studies of patients who have undergone cataract surgery 33 or those with various ocular diseases (Table 5). 34e41 Last, very few and the most severe ocular conditions have been associated with lower NEI VFQ-25 results than those of the HSK group in the current study.…”

“…Likewise, the QoL related to "general vision" was lower in our series than for patients with Sjögren's 31 and GHVD 32 (65.0AE18.03 vs. 78.6AE12.8 and 69.1AE16, respectively). Both the risk of vision loss 5 and the reduced visual quality despite an apparently complete recovery of corneal transparency 12 may explain this finding. With time, recurrent episodes of pain or loss of vision likely induce anxiety in patients with HSK, as indicated by the score related to the "mental health" dimension (NEI VFQ-25), which was lower in patients with HSK (55.5AE27.65) than in those with Sjögren's 31 and GHVD 32 (83.1AE17.5 and 67.2AE26, respectively).…”

“…5 Even in patients with HSK with apparently complete recovery of corneal transparency and vision using the conventional VA scales (i.e., 20/20 or logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR] 0), some higher order aberrations, and irregular astigmatism persist, reducing the optical quality of the eye. 12 Thus, despite an apparently complete recovery of VA, the decrease in optical quality may lead to patient symptoms of decreased visual function.…”

Clinical Management of Herpes Simplex Virus Keratitis

“…Once it invades the corneal stroma, it results in a more severe visual compromise and risk of recurrence [ 62 ]. It has been reported that over a 30-year period, 11% of patients end up with a best corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or worse [ 63 ]. In patients who do retain good visual acuity (VA) following HSV ocular infection, the quality of vision is often affected.…”

Characteristics of Corneal Higher-Order Aberrations in Congenital Ectopia Lentis Patients

“… 4 The characterization of corneal HOAs is important in assessing the patients’ visual function and recent studies elucidated the importance of corneal HOAs in various kinds of corneal diseases, such as herpetic keratitis, bullous keratopathy, perforation, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and infectious keratitis. 5 – 7 However, the corneal HOAs in CEL is still poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to characterize corneal HOAs in CEL and to evaluate the correlation with visual function of the patients with CEL.…”