Dear Colleagues,

Keratitis is an inflammatory process of the cornea. It can be classified into infectious and non-infectious disease. Infectious keratitis can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, while non-infectious keratitis can be caused by autoimmune diseases or neurotrophic condition.

The management of ocular infectious diseases is challenging, and it is widely accepted that ocular infections are among the leading causes of corneal blindness. Currently, laboratory testing represents the most common diagnostic approach for infectious keratitis, although recently next-generation sequencing and artificial-intelligence and imaging methods like in vivo confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography have demonstrated their value in infectious keratitis diagnosis. In addition, the efficacy of topical antimicrobial treatment is being increasingly challenged by the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Surgical interventions such as therapeutic corneal cross-linking, amniotic membrane transplantation, and therapeutic keratoplasty are often required to manage the infection. Emerging antimicrobial therapies and innovative drug delivery of antimicrobial therapy have recently demonstrated promise. Neurotrophic keratopathy has also seen its management recently evolve, with the arrival of new medical treatments such as NGF eye drops and surgery with minimally invasive corneal neurotization. At last, auto-immune keratitis management is often challenging.

We are pleased to present this Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine, which aims to publish high-quality manuscripts covering new research into the current state of keratitis and keratopathy diagnosis and treatment. New and original studies involved into the pathogenesis, the diagnostic and therapeutic methods that may be used in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of keratitis and keratopathy are welcome for submission. Acceptable article types include systematic reviews, clinical trials, prospective/retrospective studies, and case series.

Prof. Dr. Nacim Bouheraoua
Prof. Dr. Vincent Michel Borderie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cornea
• keratitis
• infectious keratitis
• bacterial keratitis
• fungal keratitis
• acanthamoeba keratitis
• herpetic keratitis
• neurotrophic keratopathy
• corneal innervation
• corneal neurotization
• auto-immune keratitis
• peripheral ulcerative keratitis
• amniotic membrane transplantation
• antimicrobial therapy
• antimicrobial resistance
• artificial intelligence
• corneal cross-linking
• host defense peptide
• keratoplasty
• next-generation sequencing
• optical coherence tomogra-phy
• in vivo confocal microscopy