Study of the prevalence of uveitis in a tertiary ophthalmology hospital in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the prevalence of uveitis in patients treated at a tertiary ophthalmic service in Teresina, Piauí State, Brazil. Methods: This was a retrospective study based on medical records of patients treated at this service. Sex, age, origin, underlying diseases, anatomical diagnosis, clinical aspects and progression time were described. Results: 403 records were included, noting that 3.2 out of every 1,000 patients treated at the service had uveitis.The average age of patients was 42 years old, with both sexes (50.6% females and 49.4% males) affected similarly, and with 61.5% coming from the state capital, Teresina. The most common underlying disease was toxoplasmosis, followed by idiopathic uveitis with ocular manifestations only. As to the anatomical classification, 49.6% of them were posterior and only 3.5% were intermediate. Regarding the clinical aspects, 64% were granulomatous, 24.8% non-granulomatous, and 11.2% were not classifiable. According to the clinical progression, 41.4% were acute, followed by 30.8% chronic, 14.4% recurrent cases, and 13.4% of patients did not return for medical care. Conclusion: we found that for every 1,000 patients treated at the service, 3.2 had uveitis, with toxoplasmosis itself found to be an important source of uveitis.