Ocular complications of rheumatic diseases of childhood.

The association between inflammatory ocular and articular disease is a strong one, although the pathogenesis of this relationship is obscure. For the physician or surgeon caring for children with chronic arthritis, awareness of the risk of chronic asymptomatic anterior uveitis is essential if early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of visual impairment are to be accomplished. This is particularly true for children with pauciarticular-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. Acute symptomatic anterior uveitis is characteristic of disorders such as ankylosing spondylitis. Whereas this disease is initially more unpleasant for the child, it has a good long-term prognosis.