Acute anterior uveitis

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2986

Published 25 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2986
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2986

Practice

10-Minute Consultation

Acute anterior uveitis

Ashraf A Khan, senior house officer¹, Ross J Kelly, general practitioner with special interest in ophthalmology², Zia I Carrim, specialist registrar in ophthalmology³

¹ Department of Medicine, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU , ² Spencer Street Practice, Carlisle CA1 1BP, ³ Department of Ophthalmology, St James’s University Hospital, Leeds LS9 7TF

Correspondence to: Z I Carrim zia.carrim@doctors.org.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 37 year old man presents with a five day history of progressivelypainful red right eye. He is photophobic and has blurred vision.For the past two days he has been using chloramphenicol eyedrops, but his symptoms have not improved.

The iris, ciliary body, and choroid constitute the uveal tractof the eye. Inflammation of these structures is termed uveitis.Anterior uveitis, in which inflammation is confined to the anteriorportion of the uveal tract, is a common cause of acute red eyeand has an incidence of 1 in 10 000.

History—Ask about:

Onset—usually acute with progressive symptoms.
Pain—usuallythrobbing and aggravated by accommodativeeffort or change inlighting conditions.
Discharge—absent, but lacrimationmay be excessive.
Vision—ranges from normal in earlyand mild presentationsto greatly reduced in severe cases.
Systemicinflammatory conditions—a coexisting inflammatorycondition,such as inflammatory bowel disease or connectivetissue disorder,increases . . . [Full text of this article]