Prevalence and causes of clinically detectable uveitic serous retinal detachment

To describe the prevalence and causes of clinically detectable uveitic serous retinal detachment (SRD).

Retrospective chart review of a large clinic-based series.

Serous retinal detachment was present in 78 of the 2761 (2.8%) patients. Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease was the most commonly identified cause (38/78, 48.7%). Less common associated etiologies included toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis (8/78, 10.3%), sarcoidosis (5/78, 6.4%), intraocular lymphoma (4/78, 5.1%), presumed tuberculosis (3/78, 3.8%), and posterior scleritis (2/78, 2.6%). Fifteen patients (19.2%) with uveitic SRD at presentation had no identifiable etiology and were labeled idiopathic or indeterminant. Thirty of the 38 patients with VKH disease (78.9%) had positive neurological and/or integumentary findings, and therefore constituted either complete or incomplete subtypes of the disease. The remaining eight (21.1%) had presumed/ocular VKH disease limited to the eye.

While VKH disease by far is the most common cause of clinically detectable uveitic SRD, a number of other non-infectious and infectious inflammatory disorders were also associated with this distinctive clinical finding.