Causes of Uveitis in a Tertiary Center in Chile: A Cross-sectional Retrospective Review

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the pattern of uveitis in a tertiary center in Santiago, Chile.

Methods: We reviewed all of the case records with a presumptive diagnosis of uveitis from patients referred to the Uveitis Department of Hospital del Salvador between 2002 and 2012. Initial assessment was standardized. We tested for association among causes, gender, and age groups.

Results: Anterior uveitis was the leading anatomical location of the inflammation (40.4%). A specific etiology was demonstrated in 59% of cases (28.7% infectious). Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (VKH) was the most frequent cause of uveitis (17.2%). We found association between idiopathic intermediate uveitis, toxocariasis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, VKH, toxoplasmosis, diabetes mellitus (DM)-associated uveitis, tuberculosis, and idiopathic anterior uveitis and age groups. VKH, DM-associated uveitis, and syphilis-associated uveitis were associated with gender.

Conclusions: Our sample shows a distribution of causes of uveitis similar to those in developed countries. The prevalence of VKH is higher than expected.

Keywords: Chile; South America; Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome; epidemiology; uveitis.