A case of intraocular infection caused by Nocardia brasiliensis in a patient who is immunocompetent

Nocardia is a rare opportunistic pathogen that primarily affects the skin, lungs, and central nervous sys-tem. Intraocular infection caused by Nocardia species is a rare event in individuals who are immuno-competent. We herein present a case of a female individual who is immunocompetent, with a left eye injury caused by a contaminated nail. Unfortunately, this exposure history was not recognized at the ini-tial visit, which led to a delay in diagnosis and the eventual development of intraocular infections with multiple hospital admissions in a short period of patients. A definitive diagnosis of Nocardia brasiliensis by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. With the original intention of reporting the case, we hope that physicians should be aware of rare pathogen infections, especially when conventional antibiotic therapy is ineffective, to avoid untimely treatment and poor prognosis. Fur-thermore, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry or next-generation sequencing should be considered as new techniques for identifying pathogens.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )