Anterior uveitis should be considered in patients presenting with pain, conjunctival injection, blurred vision, and photophobia. A careful history should include recent trauma/foreign body or ocular surgery, full review of systems relating to inflammatory or infectious conditions such as axial stiffness from ankylosing spondylitis and oral ulcers/skin lesions from Herpesviridae (specific concerns listed in Table 38.1). Examination should always include visual acuity and intraocular pressure. Ocular discharge should not be present and helps distinguish anterior uveitis from other etiologies of the painful red eye. Inspection of the eye may reveal perilimbal injection known as ciliary flush,⁸ although diffuse conjunctival injection may be present. A red eye that is significantly tender to palpation should raise concern for scleritis. Examination of the pupil can reveal a poorly reactive pupil secondary to ciliary spasm⁸ or an irregular pupil caused by posterior synechiae, scarring of the iris to the lens (Figure 38.4). Consensual photophobia, the presence of pain when illuminating the unaffected pupil, is suggestive of anterior uveitis.³ Fluorescein staining of the cornea can assess other causes of the acutely painful red eye such as keratitis or corneal abrasion. Hypopyon may be seen without the slit lamp as a white deposit in the inferior anterior chamber (Figure 38.2). Slit lamp examination, notably the presence of cells and flare (Figure 38.1), is the key to evaluation of anterior uveitis. Inflammatory deposits on the corneal endothelium, known as keratic precipitates, may be noted on slit lamp exam. Dilated examination is necessary to rule out posterior uveitis and to evaluate for optic disc or macular edema, which can be manifestations of anterior uveitis and are vision threatening. Table 38.2 highlights key ocular findings.

Patients most often present with blurred vision after trauma. Hyphema can occur with relatively insignificant mechanisms; any ocular trauma warrants evaluation for hyphema.² The emergency provider should first evaluate for more significant traumatic injury such as globe rupture and retrobulbar hematoma. Fluorescein staining allows for evaluation of concurrent corneal abrasion or penetrating injury to the globe. Visual acuity, pupillary response, and intraocular pressure should be measured (unless there is concern for open globe). Layered hyphema can be visible without the slit lamp (Figure 38.3). Small hyphema, microhyphema (red blood cells in anterior chamber without layering), and corneal blood staining (blood deposited in the cornea) are evaluated with the slit lamp.