ABSTRACT
The eye is a specialized sensory organ that is relatively secluded from systemic access by the blood-retinal, blood-aqueous, and blood-vitreous barriers (1). Ocular infections can involve the lids, orbits and ocular adnexia, anterior segment (cornea and conjunctiva), or the eye interior, i.e., retina-choroid. While often benign and self-limiting, certain infections can involve delicate structures of the eye and destroy visual function (2). Postoperative endophthalmitis, which is bacterial in origin, is one of the most important complications following intraocular surgery. It is a sightthreatening condition and occurs with an incidence of 0.05-0.33% (1,3). Unfortunately, the outcome of clinical diagnosed postoperative endophthalmitis is far from satisfactory. More than 50% of all such cases suffer irreparable visual loss, despite presently available antimicrobial agents (4). Human cytomegalovirus retinitis is another most common cause of visual loss among patients suffering from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), occurring in about 30-40% of patients (5-8).
