Ocular involvement in brucellosis.

Objective: To report the ocular findings associated with brucellosis.

Design: Cohort study.

Participants: One hundred thirty-two patients with the diagnosis of brucellosis.

Methods: Ocular manifestations of 132 patients with brucellosis admitted to the Uveitis-Behçet Service of Ophthalmology Department at the Ankara Education and Research Hospital in Turkey between May 1992 and May 2006 were evaluated prospectively. The diagnosis of brucellosis was based on clinical signs, Brucella agglutination tests, and blood cultures.

Results: Ocular involvement was detected in 21% of brucellosis patients. The most frequent manifestations were anterior uveitis (41%) and choroiditis (32%), followed by panuveitis (9%), papilledema (9%), and retinal hemorrhages (9%). Forty-one percent of these patients were in the acute stage and 59% were in the chronic stage of brucellosis. Interestingly, all the patients with anterior uveitis were in the acute stage and all the other patients with choroiditis, papilledema, and retinal hemorrhages were in the chronic stage. All patients responded well to systemic antibiotic treatment along with topical or systemic corticosteroid treatment. No recurrence of ocular manifestations was detected during the follow-up period, after completion of a 2-month systemic antibiotic treatment.

Conclusions: Because ocular involvement of brucellosis is frequent in endemic regions, detailed ophthalmic examination of all patients with brucellosis should be done routinely. Ocular brucellosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of all forms of uveitis or choroiditis in endemic regions, and these patients should undergo serologic screening for brucellosis.