Uveitis: report of a 10-year survey in Northern Finland

In order to determine the distribution of etiologic and diagnostic categories of uveitis at the Oulu University Eye Hospital, 653 patients with uveitis treated during the years 1964-1974 were reviewed. Of the 653 patients, 321 were men and 332 women; 547 had anterior, 64 posterior and 42 generalzied uveitis; 524 unilateral and 129 bilateral; 570 acute and 83 chronic; and 446 single and 207 recurrent. The etiologic factors were distributed into rheumatoid (7.2%), streptococcal (4.1%), tuberculosis (3.7%), toxoplasmosis (3.3%), varicella-zoster (1.7%), sarcoidosis (1.4%), staphylococcal (1.1%), leptospirosis (0.6%), lymphatic leucemia (0.5%), herpes simplex (0.5%), yersinosis (0.1%) and undetermined cases (75.8%). There were no cases of syphilis. Most of the cases in this series were anterior and acute uveitis occurring mainly in the age group 20-59 years.