Patterns of Uveitis in a Tertiary Care Referral Institute in Saudi Arabia.

PURPOSE

To present the pattern, causes and complications of uveitis in one of the tertiary eye centers in Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

In this retrospective study, clinical records of randomly selected cases of uveitis attending the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Saudi Arabia, from 2001 to 2010, were reviewed.

RESULTS

Our series included 888 out of 1286 cases of uveitis. Among them, there were 390 men (43.9%) with a mean age of 39.6 ± 11 (range: 6-94 years). The prevalence of uveitis among all eye patients was 1.5% and the annual incidence was 129 cases. Uveitis was bilateral in 567 patients (63.8%), mainly anterior in 27.3%, intermediate in 12.7%, posterior in 7.1%, while 52.9% were panuveitis. Infective etiology was seen in 180 patients (20.3%), of which presumed tuberculous uveitis (PTU) was the commonest cause in 94 patients (52%), followed by herpetic in 46 (26%) and toxoplasmosis in 29 (16%). Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) 22%, Behçet uveitis (BU) 14.6%, idiopathic anterior uveitis 12.5%, presumed tuberculous uveitis (PTU) 10.6%, and idiopathic intermediate uveitis (10.1%) accounted for the majority of cases, whereas other diagnostic entities accounted for 30%. The most common cause of anterior uveitis was idiopathic uveitis (101; 41.7%), followed by herpetic (46; 19%). Toxoplasmosis was the most frequent cause of posterior uveitis (29; 46.3%). Intermediate uveitis was most commonly idiopathic (86; 76.1%). VKH disease was the most common cause of panuveitis (195; 41.5%), followed by Behçet disease (118; 25.1%). The common complications of uveitis were glaucoma (34.1%), posterior synechiae (22.3%) and cataract (15.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

The most common anatomic diagnosis was panuveitis. VKH disease and Behçet disease were the most frequent causes and glaucoma was the most common complication of uveitis.