Clinical aspects of herpetic eye diseases

Diagnosis and treatment of herpes simplex virus eye diseases has benefitted from a vast amount of clinical and experimental studies. In this short presentation reference can only be made to some fields, which may illustrate--pars pro toto--the progress achieved during the last years. Clinico-virological correlation studies have led to a better understanding and classification of different typical clinical pictures, especially those affecting the structures of the anterior chamber: endotheliitis trabeculitis, and focal serous iritis. Antiherpetic drugs have become available which do not only penetrate the cornea in sufficient amounts but can also be used systemically. This will lead to a new role of steroids in the treatment of intraocular herpetic diseases. The combination of high-titer human interferon eye drops with a basic therapy of topical antiviral agents has considerably improved therapeutic results in dendritic keratitis.