Beware! Be careful when you have "red eyes" like this! Severe cases may cause blindness...

Expert in this article: Dr. Tian Jing, attending physician at the Southern Theater Command Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Reviewer of this article: Chen Haixu, Deputy Director and Master Supervisor of the Second Medical Center of PLA General Hospital

In daily life

Due to excessive use of eyes or

Unhygienic eye care and other reasons

Eye problems often occur

The most common one is "pink eye"

Many people think

This is acute conjunctivitis

After treatment

You will recover soon

But do you know?

There is a kind of "red eye"

Caused by uveitis

If not treated in time, it may cause blindness

Today we will give you detailed

Popular Science

What is uveitis?

Uveitis is a common and intractable eye disease. Its pathological manifestations are inflammation of the iris, ciliary body, and choroid. It often occurs in young and middle-aged people aged 20-50.

The number of people blinded by this disease accounts for 10% to 15% of the total number of people, making it one of the major causes of blindness in the world.

What are the symptoms of uveitis?

There are hundreds of types of uveitis, which can be divided into four types according to the anatomical location: anterior uveitis, intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis and panuveitis; according to the course of the disease, they can be divided into acute inflammation, chronic inflammation and recurrent inflammation.

Due to the different eye lesions involved, the clinical manifestations are various eye inflammations, mainly aqueous flare and pus in the anterior chamber, posterior corneal deposits, iris adhesions, vitreous opacities, macular edema, retinal and choroidal atrophy, and retinal detachment, etc., and may also be accompanied by varying degrees of complications of cataracts, secondary glaucoma, and eyeball atrophy.

What causes uveitis?

The uveal tract, also known as the "vascular membrane", is located in the middle layer of the eyeball wall and has the function of nourishing the eyeball. The uveal tract has a rich blood supply but slow blood flow, and harmful substances and immune complexes from the blood throughout the body are easily retained here and cause disease.

The causes of uveitis are complex and are not yet fully understood. Some of the confirmed causes include infectious factors, autoimmune factors, systemic diseases, trauma, etc. Genetic factors such as the polymorphism of the PDCD1 gene are correlated with childhood uveitis.

How does uveitis differ from other eye diseases?

1. The difference between uveitis and "acute conjunctivitis" is:

The early signs of uveitis are similar to those of other eye diseases, especially acute conjunctivitis, which can easily lead to misdiagnosis, so care must be taken to differentiate them.

Patients with anterior uveitis may experience sudden eye pain, red eyes, photophobia, tearing, etc. During examination, ciliary congestion, fibrin exudation, pupil constriction, hypopyon, and posterior synechiae may be seen. When there is a large amount of fibrin exudation or reactive macular edema or optic disc edema, vision may be significantly reduced.

Patients with acute conjunctivitis often have symptoms such as foreign body sensation, burning sensation, increased secretions, etc. During examination, eyelid swelling and conjunctival congestion can be seen, which is significantly different from the photophobia, tearing, blurred vision, ciliary congestion and anterior chamber inflammation of anterior uveitis.

Acute conjunctivitis responds significantly to antibiotics and antiviral drugs, so patients should return for follow-up visits within 3 days so that the doctor can detect the progression of the disease in time and avoid misdiagnosis.

2. The difference between uveitis and acute congestive glaucoma is:

The main symptoms of acute congestive glaucoma are eye swelling and pain, migraine, halo vision, nausea and vomiting. Patients should stop activities immediately and use mydriasis and dehydration drugs for treatment. Different surgical procedures should be selected based on the treatment effect.

3. The difference between uveitis and subconjunctival hemorrhage is:

The main manifestation of subconjunctival hemorrhage is bright red flake hemorrhage under the conjunctiva, which may be caused by dry eyes, excessive reading, drunkenness, vomiting, coughing, etc. It generally does not cause serious consequences and is treated with drugs that constrict blood vessels or promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis.

Uveitis is generally cured without sequelae

However, patients with severe illness or who have not received timely treatment

Will recur

Causes some sequelae

therefore

If you notice redness in your eyes, seek medical attention as soon as possible

Follow doctor's advice and have follow-up check-ups

Avoid misdiagnosis or delayed treatment

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