Listeria monocytogenes, a rare cause of endophthalmitis.

Abstract

Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous Gram-positive rod that is found in food and is responsible for gastrointestinal infections due to the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products or contaminated meat and vegetables. Rarely, it produces invasive disease that primarily affects immunosuppressed patients, chronic diseases, intravenous drug use, malignancies, the elderly and pregnant women; mainly causing bacteremia and meningitis [1-3]. L. monocytogenes is a rare and serious cause of endophthalmitis, which can lead to vision loss [3]. The first case reported in the literature of endophthalmitis due to L. monocytogenes was in 1967 by Goodner and Okumoto [4], since then have been published 25 cases. Endophthalmitis of endogenous cause, less frequent than the exogenous one, is due to blood-borne seeding from a place far from the eye and is related to the presence of predisposing factors, such as cirrhosis or haemochromatosis [5].