Paraneoplastic Granulomatous Vitritis: Elaboration of 8 Cases

To describe the clinical features in a series of 8 patients with cytologically proven granulomatous vitritis in the context of systemic malignancy.

Retrospective case review series from 2004 through 2018 to identify all cases of cytologically proven granulomatous vitritis and to analyze its disease associations and causes.

Twenty-three patients with a cytologic diagnosis of granulomatous vitritis were identified, 8 of whom demonstrated systemic malignancy.

To identify a clinical profile of the 8 cases of granulomatous vitritis occurring in the setting of systemic malignancy, focusing on the timing of the eye presentation compared with the timing of the systemic malignancy.

Patients with a cytologic diagnosis of granulomatous vitritis seeking treatment from 2004 through 2018 were included in this retrospective case series. Case notes were recalled and reviewed for demographic features, medical history, presenting symptoms, investigations, surgical procedures, and follow-up.

Twenty-three patients were diagnosed cytologically with granulomatous vitritis. Ten of 23 patients (43%) showed autoimmune and infectious causes, 5 of 23 patients (22%) showed were idiopathic causes, and 8 of 23 patients' (35%) disease was associated with systemic malignancy. In the latter group, the median age at presentation was 70 years (range, 55-89 years). Six patients showed bilateral disease, and the remaining 3 showed unilateral disease. Three of 8 patients showed primary systemic malignancy diagnosed after eye symptoms and 5 of 8 showed malignancy before the eye symptoms. These latter 5 patients all demonstrated a major relapse, metastasis, or both at the time of eye symptoms.

Paraneoplastic vitritis is primarily a disease of older age, with 67% of those affected older than 65 years. Ophthalmologists should maintain a high index of suspicion of paraneoplastic cause in bilateral posterior segment inflammation of uncertain origin, presenting for the first time, or heralding malignancy recurrence or metastasis in known cases of malignancy.