PEDIATRIC UVEITIS IN SOUTHERN TURKEY

Uveitis in the pediatric population is not so common, and the etiology is different from adults. In the present study the charts of the pati ents with onset of uveitis at 16 years of age or younger were reviewed in order to analyze the etiology in pediatric patients with uveitis, and to compare the results with other studies carried out on different populations. The charts of go cases, followed at the Uvea-Immunology Clinic of the Cukurova University Medical Faculty Department of Ophtha lmology, between January 1987 and February 1996 were reviewed retrospe ctively. There were 47 girls, 43 boys, aged 5-20 (13.64+/-4.24) in the study group. The average age at onset of uveitis was 12.20+/-4.81, an d the follow-up period was 9-98 months (21.80+/-11.13). Of the 90 pati ents 31 (34.4%) had panuveitis, 30 (33.3%) had anterior uveitis, 21 (2 3.3%) had posterior uveitis and 8 (8.9%) had intermediate uveitis. Onl y 2 (9.5%) of the patients with posterior uveitis were considered idio pathic after extensive laboratory and clinical work-up, whereas idiopa thic cases constituted 48.4% of panuveitis, and 46.7% of anterior uvei tis cases. Of the 90 patients an associated condition could be found i n only 59 (65.6%) patients. Of these 59 patients 23 had toxoplasmosis (39%), which constituted the most common associated condition in this study. The second most common underlying cause was Behcet's disease (1 7%), followed by pars planitis (13.6%), Fuchs' heterochromic iridocycl itis (8.5%), JRA (5.1%), leukemia (5.1%), and herpetic eye disease (5. 1%) There were single cases with Reiter, toxocariasis, traumatic uveit is, and sympathetic ophthalmia. Environmental, cultural and genetic fa ctors may be accountable for the differences in relative frequencies o f some of the associated conditions between our findings and those of previously published studies in patients with pediatric uveitis.