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Sympathetic Ophthalmia

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Anophthalmia

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Abstract

Risk of sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) is low, but consideration of this rare disease is important in the evaluation of patients for whom enucleation is being considered after penetrating injury or surgery to one eye. Once SO is established, there is no benefit to enucleation of the inciting eye, and SO cannot be prevented by prophylactic treatment with corticosteroids; however, enucleation within 2 weeks of injury may also not prevent SO. Most cases are diagnosed within 2 months of the inciting event, but retention of blind, severely damaged eyes may result in a lifelong risk of SO. Enucleation rather than evisceration may reduce risk of SO although modifications of evisceration technique can also be helpful. Only eyes with extremely limited or no vision are considered for enucleation because the inciting eye may ultimately be the better seeing of the two eyes in this bilateral uveitis. Recognition of the key diagnostic features of SO is important in assessing patients with ocular injury from trauma or surgery. Treatment is initially with high-dose corticosteroids followed by non-corticosteroid systemic immunomodulatory therapy including biologics. Although some patients will enter remission, many require treatment throughout life. Uveitic complications may lead to severe ocular complications with loss of vision and phthisis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, FL, USA

    Chrisfouad R. Alabiad, Lily Zhang & Janet L. Davis

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  1. Chrisfouad R. Alabiad
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  2. Lily Zhang
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Correspondence to Janet L. Davis .

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  1. Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Thomas E. Johnson

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Alabiad, C.R., Zhang, L., Davis, J.L. (2020). Sympathetic Ophthalmia. In: Johnson, T. (eds) Anophthalmia . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29753-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29753-4_3

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