[Scleritis, clinical features, etiologies and treatment: a case series of 32 patients]

To report on the various clinical presentations, etiological diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with scleritis evaluated at a tertiary care eye center.

Retrospective, monocentric study on a series of 32 patients in a tertiary center.

The mean age of included patients with scleritis was 46.8 years (range, 22 to 77 years). Nineteen patients were women and 13 were men. Twenty-six patients (81%) had anterior scleritis (15 nodular, 8 diffuse and 3 necrotizing), six (19%) had posterior scleritis. Unilateral inflammation was present in 24 patients (75%). Twelve out of the 32 patients (37.5%) had an underlying systemic disease: granulomatosis with polyangiitis (n=3), Behçet's disease (n=2), unspecified inflammatory arthritis (n=2), psoriatic arthritis (n=1), ankylosing spondylitis (n=1), sarcoidosis (n=1), Cogan's syndrome (n=1) and ulcerative colitis (n=1). Six patients (18.8%) were suspected of having infectious disease with herpes virus: clinical context and positive treatment response with oral valacyclovir. Systemic agents and topical agents were required in 28 patients (87.5%). The first line therapy was mainly oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in 15 patients (47%) and oral corticosteroids in 8 (25%). Immunosuppressive drugs were required in 6 patients. The mean follow-up was 16.3 months. Six patients (19%) had a decrease in visual acuity.

The number of systemic disease in our series is similar to the main series in the literature. Treatment with valaciclovir might be effective in patients with suspected herpes simplex scleritis.