Ocular Manifestations of Behcet's Disease: An Analysis of 133 Moroccan Patients

Abstract

Introduction : Behcet’s disease is a systemic disorder linked to occlusive vasculitis and of a relatively unknown pathogenesis. Ocular manifestations of the disease mainly comprise uveitis in 60-80% of cases, followed by retinal vasculitis and then retinal vein occlusion.The aim of this study is to analyze ocular manifestations of patients with confirmed Behcet’s disease, their complications, treatment and evolution in our tertiary care unit of Morocco. Patients and methods : It is a retrospective study of patients with confirmed Behcet along with ocular manifestations, hospitalized in the department of ophthalmology at the teaching hospital of Rabat from Juin 2002 to June 2012. Results: A total of 133 patients were included in the study, being 29,5 years-old on average. Visual acuity is very low before treatment: 56% had less than 1/10. Ocular manifestations included mainly uveitis with 89.96%, followed by retinal vasculitis 73.6% and maculopathy 22%. The percentage of the eyes of which the VA was inferior to 1/10 became 35.9% after the treatment. Conclusion : The most frequent clinical presentation in our context is a total uveitis with a posterior predominance associated with a vasculitis. Pupillary seclusion is the most frequent complication. Corticotherapy and immunosuppressive drugs are the therapeutic methods used the most in our context.