Causes of visual loss in uveitis

Background/Aim. Epidemiological studies of blindness in a working age population require a precise definition of the true connection of uveitis and visual damage. Since most patients with more severe types of uveitis are hospitalized in tertiary referral uveitis service, our aim was to determine whether age, sex and age of onset of uveitis, as well as duration of visual loss and its causes influence the degree of visual damage in patients with different types of uveitis. Methods. The data were collected from medical records of 237 patients at the Department for Uveitis of the Institute for Eye Diseases in Belgrade over a three-year period (March 2005 to March 2008). Results. Visual acuity reduction (≤ 0.3) was found in 161/237 (67.9%) patients, 85 of whom had visual acuity of ≤ 0.1 later. Working age patients (up to 60 years of age) most often suffered from uveitis (173/237; 73%). The highest number of patients with visual loss was in the group suffering from panuveitis (77/94; 81.91%). The age of onset of uveitis and sex have no statistically significant influence on visual loss. The most common causes of visual loss (34/161; 21.1%) were cystoid macular oedema (CMO) (43/161; 26.7%), cataract (28/161; 17.39%) and combination of CMO and cataract. Conclusion. The risk factors for severe visual loss (≤ 0.1) are panuveitis, bilateral inflammation, prolonged visual reduction and a significant number of relapses. The main causes of visual loss in 65.2% of our patients were CMO and cataract.