Clinical characteristics of corneal foreign bodies and their associated culture results.

A prospective study was performed to investigate the clinical characteristics of corneal foreign bodies and to determine if these characteristics were related to the culture results of the foreign body. The clinical characteristics included the type of foreign body, the mechanism of injury, the time present in the cornea, and the presence of a rust ring or an infiltrate. Sixty-three foreign bodies were removed from corneas and cultured for bacteria, and 14.3% cultured positive for bacteria. The major pathogen was coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. The majority of foreign bodies were metallic, and mechanisms of injury were similar for both culture-positive and culture-negative groups. There was no significant correlation between the mean time present in the cornea and the culture results. The presence of a rust ring or an infiltrate was not found to be significant when predicting culture results. No clinical features readily distinguished culture-negative foreign bodies from culture-positive foreign bodies.