Posner-Schlossman syndrome: a case report

Glaucomatocyclitic Crisis (AKA Posner-Schlossman syndrome) is a syndrome that affects patients between the ages of 20 and 50 years. It is characterized by a mild recurrent anterior uveitis associated with an out-of-proportion intraocular pressure spike in the same eye. The cause is unclear, but many theories exist. Some researchers have tried to connect it with primary open-angle glaucoma.

A review of the record of a 41-year-old Hispanic woman with Posner-Schlossman syndrome is discussed. She sought treatment on multiple occasions with symptoms of mild pain, photophobia, and a blurry left eye. Examination revealed mild anterior chamber reaction and an intraocular pressure (IOP) spike in the same eye. She was treated with topical anti-inflammatory and pressure-lowering agents. Each individual flare-up was treated successfully, but the patient began to show equivocal signs of primary open-angle glaucoma (PDAG). She is currently treated prophylactically for POAG with a beta-blocker. No etiologic factor was identified in this patient. The differential diagnosis is straight-forward and the treatment is general uveitic therapy--minus cycloplegics--combined with an IOP-lowering drop.

This is an interesting and relatively rare uveitic condition. The list of differential diagnoses is long, as is the theorized etiologies; however, clinically the condition is relatively quickly identifiable by the presence (and absence) of signs and symptoms.