We evaluated the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a diagnostic method in superficial corneoconjunctival herpes and compared it to viral culture. A total of 38 patients were included and divided into 3 groups according to the clinical aspect. Fourteen patients that had a typical clinical aspect for herpes served as reference to evaluate the method. Nine patients had atypical lesions (herpes-suspects) and 15 patients (13 foreign corneal bodies and 2 adenovirus keratoconjunctivitis) made up the control group. All culture positive cases were also positive with the PCR method (in total 10 cases). In the group of herpes-suspects, one case had both a positive viral culture and a positive PCR; four patients that responded well to antiviral therapy had a negative culture and a positive PCR and four patients were negative with both methods. In the control group two cases of foreign bodies were false-positive. As culture was not performed for these cases it is impossible to known if it was a contamination during the PCR procedure or if concomittant viral shedding occurred. Compared to viral culture, a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87.5% was calculated. PCR seems to be a very sensitive diagnostic method having an acceptable specificity for the diagnosis of superficial ocular herpes simplex disease that proved useful in atypical cases.