Fungal Flora of the Conjunctival Sac

We studied the fungal flora of the conjunctival sac in 919 eyes and air-borne fungi between November 1979 and February 1980. Fungi were cultured from 39 of 587 swabs (6.6%) from healthy conjunctivas. This incidence fluctuated with the number of air-borne fungi. The incidence of positive cultures was significantly higher in diseased eyes (32 of 184 eyes; P less than .005). Under ordinary conditions, it may be difficult for a fungus to remain or proliferate in the conjunctival sac. Most (97 of 103) positive cultures yielded only one colony and the same fungus was seldom cultured more than once from the same eye. We found 49 strains of yeast among the 107 isolated conjunctival fungi, including 15 Mycelia sterilia, 12 Cladosporium, and several Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Rhizoctonia species. THe air-borne fungi were mainly the filamentous types, especially Cladosporium and Alternaria.