Uveitis

For a lay person:

Uveitis is inflammation inside the eye, in the layer between the white of the eye and the retina. It can affect one or both eyes, may come and go, and is sometimes linked to conditions such as ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel disease or infections; without treatment it can permanently damage vision.

For a trained medical person:

Classified anatomically as anterior, intermediate, posterior or panuveitis, it may be idiopathic, associated with HLA-B27 disease, sarcoidosis, Behçet's disease or juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or infectious (herpes, toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, syphilis). Diagnosis is by slit-lamp and dilated fundus examination with targeted investigations. Treatment is topical, periocular or systemic corticosteroids and cycloplegics, with immunosuppressive or biologic agents for chronic disease after infection is excluded.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Wind-Heat in Liver Channel; Excess Fire of Liver and Gallbladder; Wind-Damp with Heat; Yin Deficiency with Deficient Fire; Liver and Kidney Deficiency with Blood Stasis. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: A painful red eye with light sensitivity or reduced vision needs same-day assessment by an eye specialist. Uveitis needs specialist medical treatment; Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most.