Mimickers of anterior uveitis, scleritis and misdiagnoses- tips and tricks for the cornea specialist

TL;DR

This review discusses conditions that can be mistaken for anterior uveitis or scleritis, helping cornea specialists avoid misdiagnoses and their serious consequences.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of misdiagnosed and mimicking conditions of anterior uveitis and scleritis.

Findings

Many non-uveitic pathologies can mimic the signs of anterior uveitis.

Misdiagnosis of anterior uveitis can lead to vision-threatening or life-threatening outcomes.

A literature-based framework is presented to help identify easily missed uveitis etiologies.

Abstract

Anterior uveitis, inflammation of the anterior chamber and related structures, is a cohort of diseases that can present to almost any general or sub-specialty Ophthalmology practice. Its features classically involve anterior chamber cell and flare. Below the surface of these two signs exist a panoply of diagnoses.

The purpose of this review is to provide a general framework for diagnoses of anterior uveitis that are often missed as well as non-uveitic pathologies that often mimic anterior uveitis. Diagnostic deviation in either direction can have vision-threatening and rarely life-threatening consequences for patients. Using a comprehensive literature review we have collected a broad spectrum of etiologies of anterior uveitis that are easily missed and non-uveitic pathologies that can masquerade as anterior uveitis.

We present a focused review on specific misdiagnosed anterior uveitis pathologies and some of the conditions that can masquerade as anterior uveitis and scleritis.

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