Eye sarcoidosis. Literature review

Abstract

A review of the literature devoted to eye sarcoidosis is presented. Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology, with a pathognomonic feature of non-caseous granuloma formed mainly by epithelium cells and single Langhans giant cells. Sarcoidosis has many synonyms: Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease, benign Schaumann’s granulomatosis, nodular reticular disease. Primary targets of sarcoidosis are lungs, intrathoracic lymph nodes, eyes and skin. During the last years eye sarcoidosis is registered more frequently, that is probably associated with better diagnosis. The frequency of the eye involvement in patients with sarcoidosis, according to different authors, is 5-69% (3rd or 4th among all the target organs involved). The eye manifestations of sarcoidosis are multiple with the uvea most frequently affected, especially iris and ciliary body. The involvement of the back of the eye includes granulomatous uveitis, vitreitis, periphlebitis. It is worth noticing that only minor non-granulomatous precipitates can be found in the acute stage of the disease. In case of chronic inflammatory process, precipitates become granulomatous. The treatment can influence both precipitates’ size and shape. In case of termination of the inflammation, precipitates are undergoing a complete resorption or decrease in size, become pigmented of transparent («precipitate shades»). The feature of sarcoidosis is the tendency to comissure formation, the pupil is hardly dilated by medicines, leading to the secondary glaucoma. Conjunctiva, extraocular muscles, retroocular tissues, lacrimal gland can be involved, as well as the optic nerve, chiasma, leading to meningovascular infiltrates formation. When diagnosed, a complex treatment with topic, symptomatic drugs and the drugs with the systemic action is used. The search of new effective treatment options is still ongoing.