What Causes Uveitis?

Uveitis results from a hypersensitivity to an external or internal protein; hence it may have many different causes. It may result from hypersensitivity to various infective organisms including viruses (such as shingles, mumps, or herpes), fungi (such as histoplasmosis), parasites (such as toxoplasmosis) and bacteria (such as tuberculosis, Lyme disease, and syphilis). It may be due to an underlying autoimmune disease. In the Indian scenario infectious causes account for a large proportion of uveitis cases.

Uveitis can also be related to disease in other parts of the body (such as sarcoidosis, arthritis & ankylosing spondylitis) or come as a consequence of injury to the eye. Rarely, inflammation in one eye can result from a severe injury to the fellow eye (sympathetic uveitis).

Additionally, uveitis may be caused if other structures of the eye are inflamed like a corneal ulcer or rarely a swollen hypermature cataract. In a few patients there may be genetic predisposition to inflammation that can be detected by HLA typing of your DNA in specific conditions. Despite thorough investigations, in a significant proportion of cases, the cause remains undetermined and is called idiopathic uveitis.