Recent Clinical Features of Intraocular Inflammation in Hokkaido, Japan - Comparison with the Previous Decade

This study aimed to investigate the clinical features of intraocular inflammation (uveitis) in Hokkaido and to assess the etiology trends in comparison with those of our previous survey.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 1,616 new referral uveitis patients (1,020 females and 596 males) in Hokkaido University Hospital between 2004 and 2014.

Sarcoidosis was the most frequent etiology (17.4%), followed by Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (8.1%), Behçet's disease (4.5%), and human leukocyte antigen B27 -associated uveitis (2.5%). The etiologies in 48.7% of the patients were unclassified. Compared to the previous survey between 1994 and 2003, the rate of Behçet's disease decreased and that of sarcoidosis increased. The rates of infectious uveitis and vitreoretinal lymphoma increased.

Although the order of the top four etiologies was the same in the two surveys, the rate of sarcoidosis increased and that of Behçet's disease decreased.