{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T22:38:08Z","timestamp":1785451088624,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,31]],"date-time":"2024-03-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1711843200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Rijeka","award":["uniri-prirod-18-178-1331"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["uniri-prirod-18-178-1331"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Herpes simplex keratitis (HSK) is the leading infectious cause of corneal damage and associated loss of visual acuity. Because of its frequent recurrence, it represents a major health problem; thus, timely and accurate diagnosis is the key to successful treatment. To enable this, we aimed to determine HSK patients\u2019 demographic and clinical features. Materials and Methods: This prospective study included 55 patients diagnosed with HSK between March 2019 and August 2022 at the Department of Ophthalmology, Clinical Hospital Rijeka. Results: We found that HSK is most prevalent in the elderly, with 72.73% of patients older than 60. The most common HSK types were dendritic (HSK-D; 43.64%) and stromal with epithelial ulceration (HSK-SEU 23.64%). HSK recurrences occurred in 65.45% of patients, with most having two to five recurrences (55.56%). Visual acuity at presentation (65.5%) and after treatment (50.9%) was mostly in the 20\/50 range. The longest period until the disease symptoms were resolved was in the group with stromal HSK without epithelial ulceration (HSK-SnEU), for which symptoms lasted more than 11 weeks in 87.5% of patients. The overall incidence of HSK-related complications was high (85.45%), with 76.4% of patients having corneal scarring. The average time from symptom to treatment was 15.78 days. Interestingly, we observed a strong seasonality in the incidence of HSK, which was most prevalent in the colder months, with 63.6% of cases occurring between October and March. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective study in Croatia, and one of the few in Europe, to describe the demographic and clinical features of HSK patients. We found that HSK is most common in the elderly population, with its dendritic form as a clinical presentation. We have shown that HSK is prone to recurrence and secondary complications, with a worryingly long time between symptom and treatment, indicating the need for diagnostic testing in routine practice.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina60040577","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,31]],"date-time":"2024-03-31T13:44:52Z","timestamp":1711892692000},"page":"577","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of Herpetic Keratitis Patients\u2014Tertiary Centre Experience"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"60","author":[{"given":"Petra","family":"Grube\u0161i\u0107","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Kre\u0161mirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7271-2643","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Igor","family":"Jurak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Ul. Radmile Matej\u010di\u0107 2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tea","family":"\u010caljku\u0161i\u0107-Mance","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Kre\u0161mirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7848-6600","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrej","family":"Belan\u010di\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Kre\u0161imirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"},{"name":"Department of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology with Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Bra\u0107e Branchetta 20, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aron","family":"Grube\u0161i\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Kre\u0161imirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"},{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Kre\u0161imirova 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.1080\/09286586.2021.1962919","article-title":"Incidence of Herpes Simplex Virus Keratitis and Other Ocular Disease: Global Review and Estimates","volume":"29","author":"McCormick","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ophthalmic Epidemiol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Labib, B.A., and Chigbu, D.I. 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Sci."}],"container-title":["Medicina"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/60\/4\/577\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T14:21:41Z","timestamp":1760106101000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/60\/4\/577"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,31]]},"references-count":22,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4]]}},"alternative-id":["medicina60040577"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/medicina60040577","relation":{},"ISSN":["1648-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1648-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,31]]}}}