A survey on eye involvement among leprosy patients in The Netherlands.

A survey of 121 leprosy patients in the Netherlands showed eye involvement in 20% of the patients, rising to 27% if madarosis and the adnexae are included. Iris atrophy was the main lesion encountered in BL and LL patients. One typical lepromatous fundus lesion was seen. No bilateral blindness occurred. Two eyes had a visual acuity of 3/60 due to intractable scleritis and acute iritis in LL with ENL. Seven eyes of 5 patients had a visual acuity of 0.2 to 3/60, mainly due to iris atrophy in lepromatous leprosy. Prevalence of blindness in our series was low as compared with the literature.