Corneal perforation in nontuberculous (staphylococcal) phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis.

An 18-year-old white man with severe staphylococcal blepharokeratoconjunctivitis of several years' duration developed phylctenules intermittently. At age 22 an active corneal phlyctenule caused perforation of the cornea. Seven days after this occurrence, the perforation closed spontaneously but perforated again ten days later. This occurrence may have been caused by an increase in the patient's hypersensitivity to the Staphylococcus as a result of concurrent viral infection, or it may have been due to the patient's failure to return for treatment at the scheduled time. The area of perforation appeared to be healed 10 and one half months later.