Chronic Uvitis - Eye & Vision Message Board

lauralynn10 · 02-16-2001, 11:36 AM

I'm 19 years old and have just been diagnosed
with Chronic Uveitis. Unfortunately, I am being shuffled inbetween doctors right now and none have really explained what it is. All I know is that my eye waters A LOT and that I have an increased risk of arthritis. Other than that, I have no idea what comes next. If anyone knows, I would appreciate any information that you have or any website addresses that you know of.

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by lauralynn10 (edited 02-16-2001).]

Springer · 02-16-2001, 08:39 PM

I'll try to throw you a little help. Uveitis is a hard condition to explain because it has so many different forms and so many causes. First off, if this is your first time to have an uveitis, I wouldnt worry much. Sometimes a person can have uveitis for no apparent reason. So a rule of thumb is ...if it's the patient's first time w/ it...we usually will treat it and hope that it doesnt come back. If it does come back...then we have to start looking more in depth for a cause.
For a background of uveitis: first off the uvea is tissue inside the eye including the iris (colored part of the eye), the tissue just in front and back of the iris, and tissue that is behind the retina in the back of the eye. By definition, an uveitis (sometimes also called an iritis) is an inflammation or irritation of that tissue. When you have an acute uveitis, you usually complain of pain in the eye, eyes watering, red around the cornea, bright lights hurt, and sometimes decreased vision. The typical treatment is with topical steriod drops, which reduced the inflammation, and also to dilate the eye, which prevents the iris from sticking to the lens and also helps to relieve some pain.
Like I said earlier though, if this is the first time you have had one....dont sweat it too much...just use your medicines and it should go away fairly quickly. I dont want to go into causes of recurrent uveitis too much because I dont know your particuliar case and I dont want to frighten anyone by speculating on individual cases.
Hope this helps...if you want to know more ..just ask.

lauralynn10 · 02-17-2001, 05:44 PM

Thanks for your help. I've had the exact symptoms you described since June of 2000. I finally went to my doctor in August and went on and off of Sodium Sulamyd until January. As it became completely ineffective, she tried Opticrom, which didn't work at all. I went to the optometrist 2 days ago when he diagnosed chronic uveitis. I'm to see an opthomologist as soon as he can find one to take me within a few days.
I'm kinda unsure of what this all means. He seemed pretty anxious to have me see someone. Is blindness a possibility? I began to wonder about that when he mentioned that I have chosen a career that is "fairly adaptable and accomadating".

Anyways, thanks for your help. It's greatly appreciated!

[This message has been edited by lauralynn10 (edited 02-17-2001).]

Springer · 02-17-2001, 10:44 PM

I wouldnt worry about blindness. It is a possibility but it is fairly rare w/ uveitis. You have a bigger chance of going blind in a car accident than by a typical uveitis. The way you treat inflammation w/ steriods is to hit it hard, smother the inflammation, use the medicines a little longer to prevent reoccurance, and then taper the steriods to avoid a rebound effect of the inflammation. So to do that you want to use a strong steriod several times a day until the inflammation is gone for a couple of days then usually taper them off. Sounds like you havnt received any steriods yet. Sodium sulamyd is a sulfa based antibiotic. Since you dont have a bacterial infection, this medicine isnt going to do anything. Opticrom is ocular sodium cromolyn, which is a mast cell stabilizer. This is used in chronic allergic problems but it isnt going to help w/ an uveitic inflammation. Need to get some Pred forte, which is prednisolone acetate. Its one of your strongest steriod medicines. Depending on how your eye looks, I typically will start you out w/ 1 drop every 2 to 3 hours. Maybe more ...maybe less depending on each case. Steriods do have some possible side effects which you have to keep an eye on. Ocularly, they can increase the intraocular pressure (there are some steriods which wont do this ic. vexol etc), cause a form of cataracts if used for long periods of time (years of use typically), and very rarely, steriods can make you retain water and make you appear to gain weight (which it goes away once you stop the meds). Like I said before, usually I dilate the eye w/ homatropine 5% to prevent the pupil from adhereing to the lens and to prevent some pain from lights. Since you've had this for so long, I would start you out pretty hard on the steriods, get this under control asap, try to get you off the steriods asap, and then go ahead and try to figure out if there is an underlying cause. Several tests have to be done to determine a root cause. Usually you start w/ a battery of blood work and sometimes a chest x-ray. I wouldnt worry about the root cause right now....just find someone who knows what their doing instead of prescribing aimlessly like before. Again, if you have any other questions, just fire away.

lauralynn10 · 02-18-2001, 05:23 PM

Thanks for the information! It helped clarify some things for me. I'll let you know what happens in the next few days.

[This message has been edited by lauralynn10 (edited 02-18-2001).]