Uveitis
Overview
Uveitis, also known as iritis, is a rare condition that causes inflammation inside part of your eye.
Symptoms
Uveitis usually only affects one eye but can affect both. Symptoms of uveitis can include: eye pain, which may feel worse when you're readingred or watery eyesreduced or blurred visionsensitivity to lightlights in the corner of your eyes or dark spots (flashes and floaters) You may get some or all of these symptoms. Symptoms can develop quickly, in hours and days, or more gradually over weeks and months. Sometimes uveitis does not cause any symptoms. Other conditions that cause similar symptoms include: glaucomaanother type of infection or inflammation, such asconjunctivitis, keratitis or scleritisaneye injury
Causes
In most cases the cause of uveitis is unknown. However, there are some things that can cause uveitis. These include: some conditions that affect your immune system (autoimmune conditions) such asmultiple sclerosisandankylosing spondylitissome infections including theherpes simplexvirus, the herpes zoster virus (which causes shingles) and toxoplasmosisan injury to your eyea growth in your eye (neoplasia) – but this is rare
Treatment
If a GP thinks you have uveitis they'll refer you to an eye specialist (ophthalmologist). You'll usually be seen within 24 hours, so you can start treatment quickly. Depending on what is causing your uveitis and how severe it is, you'll usually be prescribed a combination of medicines to: get rid of any infectionreduce inflammationrelax the eye and reduce pain If your uveitis is very severe or keeps coming back, you may also be offered other treatments such as: medicines to reduce the activity of your immune system (immunosuppressants) and to reduce inflammation (tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors)light treatment (laser phototherapy)temporarily freezing part of the eye (cryotherapy)surgery on part of your eye After you've started treatment, you'll be seen again by an ophthalmologist to: see how your treatment is workingcheck for any side effects of treatmentcheck for complications of uveitis, such asvision loss