Iritis

Treatment

The treatment goals for iritis are to reduce inflammation, lessen symptoms, and prevent vision loss or other complications.

Most often, treatment for iritis involves:

• Steroid eyedrops. Corticosteroid medicines, given as eyedrops, are the primary treatment for reducing inflammation and lessening symptoms.
• Dilating eyedrops. Eyedrops that make your pupils larger for a while can lessen pain. The medicine also can prevent the pupil from sticking to the cornea or lens capsule.

If your symptoms don't clear up or if they worsen, your eye doctor may prescribe corticosteroid pills or other anti-inflammatory medicine. Your eye doctor may prescribe other medicines or refer you to other specialists to treat underlying diseases.

Your eye doctor may recommend follow-up care and monitoring.

Preparing for your appointment

Your symptoms may prompt you to make an appointment with your primary healthcare team. You may be referred to a doctor who specializes in diseases of the eyes, called an ophthalmologist.

Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment and know what to expect from your eye doctor.

What you can do

Make a list of:

• Your symptoms, including any that may seem unrelated to your eyes.
• All medicines, vitamins or supplements you take, as well as the doses and the reason for taking each one.
• Key personal information, including recent trauma or injury and your family medical history, including whether any family member has an autoimmune disease.
• Questions to ask your eye doctor.

Take a family member or friend to your appointment, if possible, to help you remember information you're given. Also, having your pupils dilated for the eye exam affects your vision for a time afterward, so it might be helpful to have someone drive you home.

For eye symptoms, some questions to ask your eye doctor include:

• What is likely causing my symptoms?
• What tests will you order?
• What should I do if my symptoms don't go away or seem to worsen?
• I have other health conditions. How can I best manage them together?
• Do I need to come back for follow-up exams? When?
• Do you have brochures or other printed material I can have? What websites do you recommend?