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Ocular toxocariasis may cause uveitis
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Ocular toxocariasis may lead to uveitis in younger patients, according to a study. The authors note the inflammation is typically unilateral and tends to present in one of two ways.
Jay M. Stewart, MD, and colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco reviewed the charts of 22 patients with ocular toxocariasis who were diagnosed between 1977 and 1996. The toxocariasis occurred in 1% of the 2,185 uveitis patients seen during the same period. The mean patient age was 16.5 years, and inflammation was overwhelmingly unilateral, occurring in 90.9%.
Toxocara uveitis presented as a granuloma in the peripheral retina in 50% of the cases, as a granuloma in the macula in 25% of the cases and as a moderate-to-severe vitreous inflammation that mimicked endophthalmitis in the remaining 25%. Vitritis accounted for 52.6% of the vision loss, followed by cystoid macular edema (47.4%) and traction retinal detachment (36.8%).
The study is published in the December issue of Retina.