Traumatic uveitis in the mid-Atlantic United States

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to conduct an in-depth analysis of traumatic uveitis in patients managed in a mid-Atlantic tertiary care center with the goal of better characterizing the clinical features and outcomes of this large and important subset of uveitis patients. METHODS: This was a retrospective, observational study comparing traumatic uveitis patients with nontraumatic uveitis patients seen at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, from 1984 to 2014. RESULTS: Fifty-four traumatic uveitis patients (55 eyes) were identified. The patient population was 70.4% male, 57.4% Caucasian, and 37.0% African American. Mean age at diagnosis was 31.2 years; mean duration of follow-up was 5.4 years; and mean number of visits to the clinic was 4. The most common treatment modality was local steroids (77.8%). Glaucoma was medically managed in eight patients (14.8%). Cataract surgery was performed in five patients (9.3%). Mean best-corrected visual acuity at baseline for traumatic uveitis patients was 0.33 logMAR (SD 0.42) at the initial visit and 0.16 logMAR (SD 0.33) at the final visit. Mean baseline intraocular pressure (IOP) in the traumatic uveitis group was 15.5 mmHg (SD 7.4) at the initial visit and 14.6 mmHg (SD 4.0) at the final visit. Patients in the traumatic uveitis cohort tended to have better visual outcomes than those in the nontraumatic uveitis cohort. CONCLUSION: In our series, traumatic uveitis patients tended to be young and male and present with unilateral disease, all findings consistent with other reports. Despite relatively good visual outcomes, the traumatic uveitis patients still experienced a high burden of disease, measured both in the number of clinic visits and duration of follow-up. Due to the young mean age of patients, these disease burdens and decreased quality of life are nontrivial, emphasizing the importance of careful management and prompt treatment of this subset of uveitis patients.