Acrophialophora fusispora is a filamentous fungus that is found in soil and rarely infects humans. We herein report the first case of fungal keratitis caused by A. fusispora in Japan and present a review of the literature on human infections with Acrophialophora species. A 62-year-old Japanese male on immunosuppressive therapy developed fungal keratitis after the removal of a corneal foreign body from his left eye. Voriconazole eye drops and systemic therapy for post-traumatic fungal keratitis did not resolve the infection, and the patient required a therapeutic corneal transplant. The isolate was identified as A. fusispora based on the nucleotide sequence of the internal transcribed spacer region. In a drug susceptibility test, the minimum inhibitory concentration of voriconazole was 0.5 μg/mL. Based on this case and previous cases from the literature review, fungal keratitis caused by A. fusispora is often refractory.
Keywords: acrophialophora; fungal keratitis; infectious keratitis; therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty; voriconazole.
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