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Ocular Involvement of Behçet’s Syndrome: a Comprehensive Review

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Abstract

Behçet’s syndrome (BS) is a vasculitis involving several organ systems including the eyes. Ocular involvement is one of the most disabling complications of BS, causing loss of vision that may progress to blindness if left untreated. The typical form of ocular involvement is a relapsing and remitting panuveitis and retinal vasculitis. Initial attacks may spontaneously improve and subsequently disappear in a few weeks but tend to recur if left untreated. Destructive and recurrent attacks, especially with posterior segment and retina involvement, may cause irreversible ocular structural changes and permanent damage in sensory retina, resulting in loss of vision. The risk of irreversible damage to ocular tissue which may result in loss of vision warrants early and intensive treatment especially in patients at high risk such as young men who tend to follow an aggressive disease course. The management strategy involves rapid suppression of inflammation during the attacks and prevention of recurrent attacks. Local and systemic measures including immunosuppressives, corticosteroids, and biologic agents are used for this purpose. Surgery may be required in selected cases. The prognosis of eye involvement has greatly improved over the last decades with the effective use of immunosuppressives.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Hasan Yazıcı for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cerrahpasa Medical School, Department of Ophthalmology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Yilmaz Ozyazgan & Didar Ucar

  2. Cerrahpasa Medical School, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gulen Hatemi

  3. NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 333 East 38th Street, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Yusuf Yazici

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  1. Yilmaz Ozyazgan
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  4. Yusuf Yazici
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Correspondence to Yusuf Yazici.

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Ozyazgan, Y., Ucar, D., Hatemi, G. et al. Ocular Involvement of Behçet’s Syndrome: a Comprehensive Review. Clinic Rev Allerg Immunol 49, 298–306 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12016-014-8425-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12016-014-8425-z

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