Clinical analysis of 650 patients with anterior uveitis

Objective To investigate the prevalence of anterior uveitis and to assess the etiology,classification,clinical features,treatment outcomes and prognosis of uveitis.Methods Six hundred fifty patients (206 patients were bilateral) with anterior uveitis referred to the Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University during the period of December 2006 to July 2012 were retrospectively analyzed.The etiology,clinical characteristics,treatment outcomes and prognosis based on the case history,clinical manifestation,systemic diseases,auxiliary examination and laboratory examination were assessed.Results The average age at disease onset (394 males and 256 females) was 39.0±15.0 years.There were 689 eyes with acute anterior uveitis and 167 eyes with chronic anterior uveitis.The most common type was idiopathic uveitis (243 cases,37.4％),and it was followed in descending order by HLA-B27 associated uveitis that was not accompanied by systemic arthritic disease (123 cases,18.9％),ankylosing spondylitis (105 cases,16.2％),Fuchs syndrome (74 cases,11.4％) and virus infection (44 cases,6.8％).The rate of complications was 39.5％.The rate of mild visual impairment (0.05～) was 20.3％ and the rate of blindness (less than 0.05) was 4.3％.Conclusion Anterior uveitis was a disease with variable etiologies that usually occurred in young and middle-aged adults.The development of uveitis can be either bilateral or unilateral and can lead to severe complications.Careful and systemic examinations to actively identify the etiology are necessary for these patients. Key words: Uveitis,anterior ;  Etiology ;  Treatment outcome ;  Prognosis