Childhood Pars Planitis; Clinical Features and Outcomes

Purpose: to evaluate the demographic and clinical features of childhood pars planitis, and to determine the therapeutic and visual outcomes of the disease. methods: medical records of pediatric patients (less than 16 years of age at diagnosis) with pars planitis and at least 6 months of follow-up who were referred to labbafinejad medical center, tehran, iran over a 22 year period were reviewed. results: overall, 117 eyes of 61 patients including 51 (83.6%) male subjects were included. mean age at the time of diagnosis was 7.8±3.2 (range, 3-16) years. mean best corrected visual acuity (bcva) was 0.88±0.76 logmar at presentation which improved to 0.39±0.51 logmar at final visit (p < 0.001). endotheliitis was present in 23 (19.6%) eyes and was significantly more prevalent in subjects younger than 9 years (p=0.025). cataract formation (41.9%) and cystoid macular edema (19.7%) were the most prevalent complications. univariate regression analysis showed that better baseline visual acuity (or=0.38, 95%ci 0.21-0.70, p=0.002), age older than 5 years at disease onset (or=0.36, 95%ci 0.14-0.9, p=0.029), absence of endotheliitis (or=0.39, 95%ci 0.15-0.99, p=0.047) and female gender (or=3.77, 95%ci 1.03-13.93, p=0.046) were significantly associated with final bcva of 20/40 or better. conclusion: childhood pars planitis was much more common among male subjects. endotheliitis may be a sign of inflammation spillover and is more prevalent in younger patients. visual prognosis is favorable in most patients with appropriate treatment