Exudative Retinal Detachment in Inflammatory Ocular Diseases: Epidemiology, Clinical and Imaging Characteristics in Two Referral Hospitals in Italy

Purpose The aim of the study was to analyze the epidemiological, clinical and imaging characteristics of patients with inflammatory exudative retinal detachment (ERD).Methods This multicenter, retrospective, observational study enrolled patients with a diagnosis of an inflammatory ocular disease associated with ERD. In all patients a complete ophthalmological evaluation was performed, with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), automated refraction, slit lamp biomicroscopy, intraocular pressure (IOP), fundus examination, optic coherence tomography (OCT) scan, color fundus photography, fluorescein angiography (FA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). ERD was located (posterior pole, peripheral retina or both) with imaging, and the presence or absence of subfoveal neuroepithelial detachment, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) detachment, epiretinal membrane (ERM), and macular edema (ME) were documented.Results 130 patients were enrolled, with a mean age of 52.14 ± 20.69 years. The most representative diagnosis was Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease (23.85%), followed by Sarcoidosis (16.15%), Tuberculosis (13.08%) and Posterior Scleritis (PS) (9.23%). The principal location of ERD in the 165 enrolled eyes was in the posterior pole. In VKH, ERD was located at the posterior pole in 45 eyes, with 85.71% of subfoveal neuroepithelial detachment and choroidal granulomas in 87.76% of eyes. In PS a posterior pole location of ERD was found in 66.67% of eyes, with 83.33% of subfoveal neuroepithelial detachment and no choroidal granulomas.Conclusions ERD is most frequently associated with VKH disease and the predominant localization is at the posterior pole, which occurs in the setting of posterior uveitis, panuveitis, and/or scleritis.