How to treat herpes virus keratitis

Herpes virus keratitis generally refers to herpes simplex virus keratitis, which is a more serious keratitis. This type of keratitis can cause great damage to people's eyesight. There are many treatments for herpes virus keratitis, and debridement is one of them.

⑴ Mechanical debridement

After local anesthetic, use a white spatula, blade, cotton swab, restorer or foreign body needle to clean the ulcer together with the surrounding 0.5 mm healthy epithelium under the slit lamp, and then apply pressure for 48 hours. This method can only eliminate infected cells but cannot prevent the virus from continuing to multiply, so it must be combined with antiviral drug treatment to achieve better therapeutic effects.

⑵Chemical debridement

After applying surface anesthesia, dip a cotton swab into chemical disinfectants such as ether, ethanol, iodine, carbolic acid, zinc sulfate, silver nitrate, etc., then smear it on the ulcer area and rinse with saline. The purpose is to cause the infected epithelial cells to fall off through chemical cold drinks. This method must be used with caution because it may damage the corneal epithelial basement membrane and stromal layer, affect repair, and promote the development of lesions deeper!

⑶ Cryodebridement

Use a 2 mm diameter freezing head to freeze the edge of the ulcer first with very light pressure, then freeze the center of the ulcer. The temperature is generally -60℃ to 80℃. Freeze each point for 6 to 8 seconds, then thaw with saline solution. Repeat multiple times if necessary. Although freezing has no effect on the activity of HSV, its destructive effect on corneal epithelial cells is better than the above two methods. Amoil believes that viral particles released by ruptured corneal epithelial cells can be washed away by tears or neutralized by tear antibodies. Freezing corneal lesions can temporarily inhibit the activity of viral DNA and quickly reduce the energy adenosine triphosphate needed for viral replication.

⑷ Photoinactivation therapy

Drop 0.1% neutral red or 0.01% promethazine into the eye, and then expose the affected eye to ordinary fluorescent light for 15 minutes at a distance of 15 cm. The dye will combine with the viral DNA and break it, thereby inactivating the virus.