Prevalence of Blindness in Patients with Uveitis.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The uvea plays an important role in ocularimmunological defense mechanism. Immunologicallyspeaking, the eye has a deviant and privileged position becauseof the blood retina barriers, absence of lymphatic drainageand a special feature called anterior chamber associateddeviation. This special defense mechanism contributed to thepreservation of vision. If these mechanism fail, intraocularinflammation will arise, which may lead to blindness. The aimof this research is to find out the incidence of blindness inpatients with uveitis.Material and methods: In this study, 50 cases of uveitisattending ophthalmic out patients and those who are admittedin department of ophthalmology, Regional Institute of MedicalSciences, Imphal were studied to find out clinical incidence ofblindness. All the patients were subjected to detailed ocularexamination including visual acuity, slit lamp biomicroscopy,direct/indirect ophthalmoscopy and intraocular pressure wasrecorded.Results: Out of 50 patients examined, 20 cases (40%)developed blindness or visual impairment. Bilateral loss ofvision developed in 5 cases (10%) and unilateral loss of visionoccurred in 11 cases (22%).Conclusion: Uveitis was found to be more common in the agegroup of 21 – 30 years with male preponderance. The maincause of visual loss were secondary glaucoma and cataract.Patients with panuveitis had the worst visual prognosis.