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Question: What is traumatic iritis, and how do you treat it?
Answer: This is an inflammation inside the eye that occurs after blunt trauma. By iritis, we mean that the iris is inflammed. Some people more accurately call this an iridocyclitis, meaning both eye iris and the underlying ciliary body are inflammed.
However you call it, what this generally means is there is some inflammation and sensitivity of the anterior structures inside the eye. This can cause low grade irritation and photophobia (sensitivity to light). This light sensitivity occurs because the iris wants to constrict with light … and if the iris is inflammed, it hurts.
We generally treat iritis with:
1. A steroid like prednisolone acetate (Pred Forte) to decrease inflammation
2. A cycloplegic like cyclogyl that will dilate the pupil and paralyze the ciliary body so that they don’t spasm with light exposure.
A moderatly-long acting cycloplegic has another positive affect in that it keeps the inflammed, “sticky” iris from adhearing to the underlying lens.
Comments and Feedback
4 Comments
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Hi my name is Kyle, and Im from Northwest ohio. Six years ago I was hit in my left with a softball, and went partially blind in that eye from the blunt force trauma. My pupil stays dialated, and have a red blind spot in the center of my vision. My question is if there is anything out there to treat this as with a surgical preceduure at least to my pupil dialating again.
thanks Kyle
Comment by Kyle Krotzer — December 14, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
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due to the blunt trauma, your iris (your eye color that controls the pupil size) had likely sustained damage. more particularly, the sphincter, which is the muscle in the iris responsible for constricting it, might have suffered some permanent injury and therefore possibly caused irreversible dilation. as a result, you may suffer symptoms of glare and photophobia aside from the apparent iris ‘deformitity’. honestly, i believe most ophthalmologist will not attempt surgical correction as this is more of a cosmetic concern, and surgery will likely achieve poor if not neglible results, especially since its been six yrs since the accident. if you are very concern with the appearance of your pupil, then your best bet is to try tinted contact lenses, with either a general tint or an artificial pupil, to mask the prob.
in addition, i hope you had followed up with an optometrist or ophthalmologist after the blunt trauma and addressed the red blind spot as this is obviously not normal. if not, then it is imperative that you see your eye dr soon b/c this red spot might turn out to be something (such as a retinal detachment) that can lead into further vision loss.
hope this helps.
thanks, la
Comment by l, od — January 30, 2009 @ 9:08 pm
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My name is Chase, I got hit in the eye three days ago by a racquetball. It hit me so fast and unexpectly that I could not get my eye closed. It knocked my Contact out and I had a black spot for about 60 seconds that went away and I found my contact and made it to the locker room where I put an eye drop in and put my lens back in and drove home. The next morning my eye felt like a sore muscle and after I was awake and blinked for a while the pain went away. Today is Saturday and and it happened Wednesday. When i woke up for work the light in my bathroom killed my eye and all morning the light has been killing my eye. I just took my contact out and its feeling a little better but I have been wearing my shades even inside. What should I do. I dont have insurence and dont want to go to the doctor. Thanks.
Editors Note: If you have any change in your vision, or discomfort to the eye, or visual side effects … you should go to the eye doctor (an ophthalmologist may be most appropriate given the nature of the injury). You may have a case of traumatic iritis that needs to be treated. A dilated exam might be a good idea as well … though extremely unlikely, impacts to the eye can create a small retinal tear, so warrants a checkup.
Comment by Chase — May 2, 2009 @ 10:02 am
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my son and his friends are cycling across the country, and having fallen one of the guys has traumatic iritis, he has been given steroids for the treatment but we need to know if it is ok to continue the cycle ride , many thanks.He does not have blurred vision.
Comment by Andy Woodward — July 9, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
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