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Fuchs syndrome
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Dystrophic processes in the iris and ciliary body rarely develop. One of these diseases is Fuchs dystrophy, or Fuchs heterochromic syndrome. It usually occurs in one eye and includes three mandatory symptoms - protein precipitates on the cornea, a change in the color of the iris and clouding of the lens. As the process develops, other symptoms join - anisocoria (different pupil widths) and secondary glaucoma. Friends and relatives of the patient first reveal signs of the disease: they notice a difference in the color of the iris of the right and left eyes, then pay attention to the different width of the pupils. A patient aged 20–40 years complains of reduced visual acuity when lens opacities occur.
Symptoms of Fuchs syndrome
All symptoms of Fuchs syndrome are caused by progressive atrophy of the stroma of the iris and ciliary body. The thinned outer layer of the iris becomes lighter, and the lacunae is wider than on the double eye. Through them begins to shine pigment sheet of the iris. By this stage of the disease, the affected eye becomes darker than a healthy one. Dystrophic process in the processes of the ciliary body leads to a change in the walls of the capillaries and the quality of the produced fluid. In the moisture of the anterior chamber, a protein appears, settling in small flakes on the posterior surface of the cornea. The precipitation of precipitates can disappear for a period of time, and then reappear. Despite the prolonged existence of a precipitation symptom for several years, posterior synechia are not formed in Fuchs syndrome. Changes in the composition of the intraocular fluid leads to clouding of the lens. Secondary glaucoma develops.
Previously, Fuchs syndrome was considered inflammation of the iris and ciliary body due to the presence of precipitates - one of the main symptoms of cyclitis. However, in the described clinical picture of the disease, four of the five general clinical signs of inflammation, known since the times of Celsus and Galen, are absent: hyperemia, edema, pain, fever, only the fifth symptom is dysfunction.
Currently, Fuchs syndrome is considered as a neurovegetative pathology caused by a violation of innervation at the level of the spinal cord and cervical sympathetic nerve, which manifests itself as a dysfunction of the ciliary body and iris.
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What do you need to examine?
- Iris
- Ciliary body
How to examine?
- US of eye
- Examination of eye
What do need to examine?
How to examine?
Fuchs syndrome treatment
The treatment of Fuchs syndrome is aimed at improving trophic processes; it is ineffective. When opacities in the lens lead to a decrease in visual acuity, carry out the removal of complicated cataracts. With the development of secondary glaucoma, surgical treatment is also indicated.