What Is Uveitis?
Uveitis is bulging of the middle layer of the eye, which is called the uvea. It may happen from both infectious and non-infectious causes. The uvea provides blood to the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive part of the eye that adjusts the image you see and sends them to the brain. It’s usually red due to its blood supply from the uvea.
Uveitis normally isn’t serious. More difficult cases can produce vision loss if not treated early.
Types Of Uveitis
This eye condition subsists in several various types, depending frequently on the part of the eye bearing the swelling.
Iritis
Primarily targeting the iris region of the eye, iritis appears to be the most commonly existing form of uveitis. It is a kind of disease associated with autoimmune disorders like arthritis. This type of uveitis is associated to develop unexpectedly, lasting for as long as eight weeks despite being healed.
Cyclitis
When the middle part of your eye catches inflammation, also probably affecting the muscle that helps lens focus, it’s attacked by cyclitis. It also has the tendency to occur suddenly, with inflammation enduring for several months.
Retinitis
This is when the back of your eye is influenced by uveitis. Treating Retinitis becomes a bit challenging because it can happen quite quickly. Viruses like herpes zoster, bacterial diseases like syphilis, and parasitic infections like toxoplasmosis or certain autoimmune disease can also head to this type of uveitis.
Choroiditis
Inflammation in the layer beneath the retina is related to choroiditis which is possible to be caused by some autoimmune diseases as well as infections like tuberculosis.
Panuveitis
When the inflammation spreads to the whole interior of the eyes, the condition is referred to as Panuveitis.
Scleritis
When the inflammation closes the white part of your eye, the sclera is called Scleritis. There is also another common form of separating between different forms of uveitis that includes:
i) Anterior Uveitis
Affecting frequently young and middle-aged populations, this is the most common form of uveitis, targeting the front of the eye. Quite often, it only affects healthy people in just one eye, but sometimes it is correlated with rheumatologic, gastrointestinal, lung, skin, and various infectious disorders.
ii) Intermediate Uveitis
Young adults are most liable to suffer from this form of uveitis, with infection developing in their vitreous region comprising of the clear gel-like substances between the eyeball and the retina of the lens. It is also connected with various disorders like sarcoidosis and multiple sclerosis.
iii) Posterior Uveitis
This is the least common of different kinds of the disease, affecting the back of the eye in most cases, as the name recommends. The inflammation is most expected to affect both the retina and the choroid of your eye and can be created by various infectious and noninfectious diseases.
Causes
In about half of all cases, the particular cause of uveitis is not clear, and the disease may be considered an autoimmune disease that only assumes the eye or eyes. If the cause can be detected, it may be one of the following:
- An autoimmune or inflammatory disease that affects other parts of the body, such as sarcoidosis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus.
- An epidemic such as cat-scratch disease, herpes zoster, syphilis, toxoplasmosis
- Medication side effect
- Eye injury or surgery
- Very infrequently, cancer that affects the eye such as lymphoma
Symptoms
The sign and symptoms of uveitis vary depending upon the sort of inflammation affecting a person. Generally, you should promptly consult an ophthalmologist if you are suffering from severe eye pain, light sensitivity, or a noticeable change in your vision. some typical symptoms include:
- Cloudy or blurred vision and different generic vision problems
- Redness and pain in the eye
- Pupil looking smaller than usual
- Increased light sensitivity
- Headaches
- Changing iris color
Treatments
Common Treatment alternatives for each type of uveitis:
- Treatment for anterior uveitis, or iritis, includes dark glasses, eye drops to enlarge the pupil and reduce pain, and steroid eye drops to decrease inflammation or irritation.
- Treatment for posterior uveitis may involve steroids taken by mouth, injections around the eye, and visits to additional professionals to treat the infection or autoimmune disease. A body-wide bacterial disease is usually treated with antibiotics.
- Treatment for intermediate uveitis involves steroid eye drops and steroids taken by mouth.
Severe cases of uveitis may need drugs that suppress the immune system.
