AIM:To investigate the effective treatment methods of corneal injury caused by chestnut thorns and the factors affecting the disease progression.

METHODS: From Jul. 2014 to Oct. 2015, the clinical data of 15 patients(15 eyes)with corneal injury caused by chestnut thorns in Ophthalmology Inpatient Department of Wuhan Tongji Hospital was retrospective analyzed. The patients without fungal keratitis were treated with the surgery of removing chestnut thorn from cornea and antifungal drugs. For the patients complicated with fungal keratitis, besides surgery of removing chestnut thorn and antifungal drugs, anterior chamber irrigation and corneal stroma injection with fluconazole solution were given to treat the disease. If necessary, amniotic membrane transplantation or keratoplasty was also given to the patients complicated with fungal keratitis. After that, the effectiveness of those methods and the factors affecting progression were analyzed.

RESULTS:For 11 patients without fungal keratitis, the average time between corneal injury and receiving treatment at Tongji Hospital was 1-7(2.42±2.15)d and for 4 patients complicated with fungal keratitis, the average time was 3-30(18.25±4.35)d. Among 15 cases, statistics suggested that the average number of chestnut thorn in patients complicated with fungal keratitis was 4.5, and all the chestnut thorn penetrated the cornea into the anterior chamber. The average number of chestnut thorn in patients without fungal keratitis was 3.5, and the proportion of chestnut thorn penetrated the cornea into the anterior chamber was 28.5%. After treatment, all patients had no new fungal keratitis or other complications. Those results indicated that the different treatments for the patients with or without fungal keratitis were all effective.

CONCLUSION:The factors affecting the progression of cornea foreign body injury caused by chestnut thorn are the number of chestnut thorn, whether chestnut thorn penetrate the cornea into the anterior chamber, time since injury, active anti-fungal therapy. If patients complicated with fungal keratitis could be treated with antifungal agents and anterior chamber irrigation or corneal stroma injection using fluconazole solution without delay, the progress of fungal keratitis could be effectively controlled, and favorable conditions for further therapy such as amniotic membrane transplantation or keratoplasty could be provided.