Abstract

Zeina M. Alsabti, Samer N. Khalaf, Asra'a Adnan Abdul-Jalil, Thakir M. Mohsin

Nasolacrimal duct obstruction (Dacryocystitis) is an inflammation of the lacrimal sac and duct. It is an important cause of ocular morbidity, both in children and in adults. Clinical features of this disease are pain, swelling, redness over the lacrimal sac at medial canthus, tearing, crusting, fever, digital pressure over the lacrimal sac may extrude pus by the punctum. It is notable that, in chronic cases, tearing may be the only symptom. Aim of this study was Isolation and molecular identification of staphylococci from children with Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction. Twenty five swabs were obtained from the conjunctival sac of children with nasolacrimal duct obstructions after applying pressure over the lacrimal sac and allowing the purulent material to reflux through the lacrimal punctum , then cultured on blood agar, MacConkey agar, and Mannitol Salt agar media. The samples collected from patients who attend Al-Nahrain eye specialty center. Vitek2 system was performed based on manufacturer's protocol to confirm Staphylococcus aureus identification on mannitol agar, (49%) of all samples were Staphylococcus aureus, (16%) of all samples were Staphylococcus epidermis, also the results showed that 5% of samples were Ralstonia mannitolilytica and the rest of samples distributed between Pantoea spp(5%) and Citerobacter freundii (10%), partial rpoB gene (1457383..1458229) was determined for 12 cultures by PCR technique with specific primer pair and electrophoresed on Agarose gel. Most of the cases gave culture positive, demonstrating the importance of this clinical disorder for ophthalmologists to explicitly examine the occurrence of nasolacrimal obstruction symptoms before any intraocular procedures were scheduled