[Herpes and retinal lesions: what's new?]

The viral retinitis are linked to infection by herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), cytomegalovirus (CMV). When the diagnosis is clinically suspected the antiviral treatment has to be introduced immediately after performing the ocular sampling to try to identify the infectious agent. Despite the various antiherpetic drugs available by intravenous routes and intravitreal injection, the prognostic of the herpetic retinitis remained severe because of the occurrence of retinal detachment, optic neuritis, macular necrosis. Various clinical forms are described: (1) the classical "acute necrotizing retinitis" (2) a form with a slow progression of the necrotizing retinitis (3) occlusive retinal arteritis (4) the highly severe "progressive retinal necrosis". The incidence of the CMV retinitis diminished with the highly antiretroviral therapy; however uveitis may occur with no active CMV retinitis. The various antiherpetic drugs are described with special indications.