Uveitis Not Your Common Pink Eye

By Samuel H. Yun, MD

Samuel H. Yun Ophthalmology, PLC

. https://www.yuneyecare.com/

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Uveitis Not Your Common Pink Eye

Many people have experienced a red eye at one point in their life. When you experience a viral illness such as a common cold, your eye may turn red, itchy, and painful. Urgent evaluation by your health care provider can be reassuring that it is just a “pink eye”, or an acute viral conjunctivitis. It is commonly treated with cold compresses and topical eye drops. However, if your eye redness does not improve or persists longer than a month, you may have underlying inflammation inside the eye, which is called “uveitis.”

What Is Uveitis?

Uveitis means “inflammation of uvea” (latin uva, Grape), which is an inner lining of an eye. There are approximately 38,000 new patients with uveitis in the United States every year, and 10% of the legal blindness in the United States is caused by uveitis.

What Are The Symptoms Of Uveitis?

Uveitis can cause redness, floaters, light sensitivity, swelling, and pain of one or both eyes, and may lead to permanent loss of vision if not treated promptly.

What Are Some Of The Causes Of Uveitis?

There is a wide variety of etiologies of uveitis. It may be caused by an infection, or your body's own immune system attacking the eye. Most often, however, the cause of the uveitis remains unknown despite the extensive effort to find the etiology.

How Is Uveitis Treated?

The goal of treatment is to eliminate the inflammation as quickly as possible to preserve and possibly improve vision. Therapy is dictated by the cause of uveitis. Treatment often involves antibiotic medication and/or aggressive steroid treatment to control the inflammation in the eye.

What Should I Do To Protect My Eye?

If you have persistent red eye, light sensitivity, blurry vision and pain in the eye, please consult your primary eye care provider as soon as possible. Your doctor will be able to use a special microscope to look inside the eye to see if there is any inflammation in the eye. The majority of patients with uveitis need long-term evaluations and chronic management. Even if the uveitis is caused by an infection, which can be treated with appropriate medication, the inflammation can often linger in the eye chronically and cause further damage. Therefore, periodic follow-up evaluations are crucial in order to ensure the safety of your eye.