Microbiologic and histopathologic assessment of corneal biopsies in the evaluation of microbial keratitis.

Purpose: To investigate the utility of corneal biopsy in the evaluation of infectious keratitis; to compare results of culture and histopathologic examination of the same specimens; to investigate potential factors related to positive biopsy results.

Design: Retrospective, observational case series.

Methods: We reviewed medical records for all patients who underwent corneal biopsy because of infectious keratitis at the Jules Stein Eye Institute from June 1989 through June 2009.

Upper eyelid extension of a filtering bleb following glaucoma shunt surgery.

The authors describe a case of a filtering bleb that extended into the eyelid of a 71-year-old man following glaucoma surgery with a shunt implant. The patient presented with a left upper eyelid mass and had ocular surface and mechanical sequelae. Computed tomography scan demonstrated a fistula between the original filtering tract and the eyelid, creating an inadvertent filtering bleb.

Ocular and facial injuries associated with the use of immersion heaters in an inmate population.

Purpose: To report ocular and facial injuries caused by the use of electric immersion heaters in an inmate population.

Design: Prospective observational case series.

Methods: Data were recorded over a six-month period on age, gender, mechanism of injury, examination, and treatment of Dallas County inmates who experienced ophthalmic injuries from immersion heaters and were referred to a tertiary-care center.

Paradoxical effect of prostacyclin infusion in a patient with primary pulmonary hypertension-a case report.

Prostacyclin treatment successfully delays the need for lung transplantation in many patients with progressive primary pulmonary hypertension by vasodilating pulmonary arteries. However, the treatment of pulmonary hypertension with prostacyclin may cause a paradoxical increase in pulmonary artery pressure, as shown in this case.