[Eye Involvement and Risk of Blindness in Sarcoidosis].

Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology characterized by granulomas formation. Pulmonary involvement is the most frequent manifestation but the eye is frequently affected and, in some cases, it may be the debut of the disease. In Chile there are few data on this subject.

Aim: To describe the ocular involvement of patients with sarcoidosis and to evaluate the relationship between presentation patterns and decreased visual acuity (VA).

Material and methods: Descriptive retrospective study of subjects aged 18 years or older with ocular sarcoidosis treated between January 2014 and March 2023 in two health centers. Epidemiological information and the clinical and imaging characteristics of ocular involvement were recorded.

Results: Of 13 patients with sarcoidosis nine had ocular involvement; 78% were women and the average presentation age was 55 years. All cases presented as bilateral uveitis. The most frequent subtypes were Panuveitis (PU) (44%) and Anterior Uveitis (AU) (33%). Posterior pole involvement occurred in older patients (mean age 70 years) and was associated with a higher risk of blindness.

Conclusions: Ocular involvement was frequent in our population and behaved as described in international literature. Age seems to be associated with uveitis subtype and posterior pole involvement could identify a higher risk of non-recoverable decrease in VA. Our findings suggest that older patients should be treated vigorously due to their increased risk of irreversible visual loss and reinforce the need for collaborative work between specialties.