Dawaa Reference

chronic

Anterior Uveitis (Iridocyclitis)

Treatment options, dosing, cautions and Egyptian brands from the shipped Dawaa Reference card.

Evidence status

Checked against the sources named below

Sources3 sources

ICPC-3 (WONCA International Classification of Primary Care, 3rd edition) class FD03.01 - condition scope only, no dose · Iritis - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430909/ · No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Verified against2 documents
  • No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care
  • Anterior Uveitis (Iridocyclitis) - disease-level clinical article (anterior-uveitis-clinical.txt)

Verified date2026-08

Presentation reference

Is it this?

Reference only, to read alongside your own examination.

Symptoms — what the patient reports (5)

  • Typical ocular symptoms are pain, photophobia, redness, floaters, and decreased vision [floaters · photophobia · redness]
  • Joint pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, dry cough, and rash can point to sarcoidosis and warrant a chest x-ray [breathlessness · cough · fatigue · joint pain · rash]
  • Cough, night sweats, weight loss, or a travel history can raise suspicion for tuberculosis [cough · night sweats · weight loss]
  • A sexual history may prompt additional testing for syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections
  • Uveitis can be idiopathic or tied to systemic disease, so a broad review of systems is important

Signs — what you find (3)

  • Exam starts with visual acuity and intraocular pressure, then pupil exam, slit-lamp exam, and a dilated fundus exam
  • Slit-lamp exam of the front of the eye may show mutton-fat precipitates on the inner corneal surface, cells in the aqueous, and iris nodules
  • Findings in the back of the eye may include cells in the vitreous, snowball opacities, inflamed retinal vessels, and choroidal lesions that are focal or spread out

Tests (8)

  • Baseline labs - CBC, ESR, CRP - help gauge inflammation and are guided by clinical suspicion
  • Infectious work-up can include a TB skin test or interferon-gamma release assay plus nontreponemal and treponemal syphilis testing
  • Non-infectious work-up can include serum ACE, calcium, and HLA-B27, plus HLA-DR15/HLA-A29 in younger patients when birdshot chorioretinopathy is suspected
  • Chest x-ray, with CT chest if abnormal, is more sensitive for diagnosing sarcoidosis
  • Conjunctival biopsy can find noncaseating granulomas in a large minority of sarcoidosis patients
  • When infection or malignancy is possible, sampling the aqueous or vitreous - by paracentesis, tap, or vitrectomy - can pick up microbial genetic material or special antibody ratios
  • Fluorescein angiography is the gold-standard test for the blood-retinal barrier and for identifying retinal vasculitis
  • Tonometry and assessment of the iridocorneal angle separate acute angle-closure glaucoma from uveitis

If not this — what else fits (7)

  • Nongranulomatous uveitis, often idiopathic or HLA-B27-linked, has smaller keratic precipitates, a more acute onset, more pain, and usually no iris nodules or mutton-fat deposits
  • Conjunctivitis shows diffuse rather than perilimbal injection, no anterior chamber cells, and often discharge
  • Scleritis brings deep aching pain, pain on eye movement, scleral edema, and nonblanching dilated scleral vessels
  • Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis is almost always one-sided, low-grade and nonrelapsing, with fine diffuse keratic precipitates and iris atrophy with heterochromia
  • In acute angle-closure glaucoma, look for a sluggish, mid-sized fixed pupil, corneal clouding, and markedly elevated pressure, frequently above 40 mm Hg
  • Endophthalmitis is favored by disproportionate pain, lid edema, chemosis, rapid vision loss, dense vitritis, and recent trauma, surgery, or injection
  • Masquerade syndromes such as intraocular lymphoma, uveal melanoma, retinoblastoma, or metastasis can mimic uveitis with chamber cell/flare and vitritis

SourceStatPearls "Granulomatous Uveitis" - disease-level clinical article

Presentation findings are traced to the source above.

1

NO DRUG THERAPY IN PRIMARY CARE (REFERRAL & ADVICE)

1st line
Adult dose and duration

Inflammation inside the front of the eye causing pain, redness and light sensitivity; it is sight-threatening, so a GP's role is same-day ophthalmology referral, with cycloplegic or steroid drops normally only started under specialist slit-lamp guidance. - Refer, with advice

Paediatric dose

Children follow the same pathway: recognise and refer. No primary-care medicine is implied.

Dose source

No dose - referral pathway, no medicine given in primary care

Why

Inflammation inside the front of the eye causing pain, redness and light sensitivity; it is sight-threatening, so a GP's role is same-day ophthalmology referral, with cycloplegic or steroid drops normally only started under specialist slit-lamp guidance.

Cautions
  • No medicine is prescribed for this in primary care - this entry is for recognition and referral. Anything given is decided by the service it is referred to.
  • RED FLAG - Signs favoring endophthalmitis (disproportionate pain, lid edema, chemosis, rapid vision decline, recent ocular trauma or surgery) require urgent differentiation from uveitis.
  • RED FLAG - Severe eye pain, photophobia and reduced vision, or pus visible in the front of the eye (hypopyon): same-day ophthalmology referral. Untreated, it risks secondary glaucoma and cataract.

Prices are indicative (dataset snapshot 2026-06); verify with the pharmacy.