Epidemiology of Childhood Uveitis in a Tertiary Care Center: A 20-Year Study

To investigate demographics and causes of pediatric uveitis in a Swiss tertiary reference center over a 20-year period.

Retrospective cohort study on patients with uveitis aged less than 16 years seen at Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2019.

Out of 2846 patients with uveitis seen in the Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital Ocular Immune-Infectiology Department, 317 (11.1%) were under 16 years of age and were included in this study. Median age at onset of the uveitis was 8.9 years (range 0 - 16). Anterior uveitis was the most frequent presentation (45.1%) followed by posterior uveitis in 26.2%, intermediate uveitis in 23.3%, and panuveitis in 5.4%. The inflammation was most frequently bilateral and non-granulomatous. A systemic inflammatory disease was found in 34% of the cases and an infectious cause in 24%.

The repartition of the location of the uveitis was similar to previous reports from Western countries. Uveitis in juvenile idiopathic arthritis is the most frequent etiology related to a systemic disease in children. An infectious cause was found in 24% of our patients, which is a greater proportion than in adult cohorts.