PURPOSE: To study the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of nine patients with corneal and scleral involvement associated to connective tissue disease. METHODS: Description of anterior segment abnormalities observed in nine patients with connective tissue disease, five of them previously diagnosed and four with the ocular involvement being the first manifestation of the disease. All patients were evaluated at the Corneal and External Diseases outpatient clinic of the Federal University of São Paulo - Escola Paulista de Medicina (UNIFESP-EPM) between July/1999 to December/2000 and were submitted to a complete ophthalmologic examination, clinical evaluation and laboratory investigation. Clinical or surgical treatment was indicated according to the ocular disease evolution. RESULTS: The clinical diagnoses of the patients with anterior segment inflammatory disease were rheumatoid arthritis in seven patients (77.8%), systemic sclerosis and Wegener´s granulomatosis in each of the remaining patients (22.2%). The most frequent ocular manifestation was scleritis (66.6%), followed by peripheral ulcerative keratitis (55.5%) and dry eye syndrome (44.4%). Eighty-nine percent (89%) of the patients required immunosuppressive therapy to control the ocular inflammatory disease. Remission of the ocular symptoms were observed after 3 months of the beginning of imunossupressive therapy on average. In 55.5% of the patients a surgical approach (conjunctival resection, application of cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive, penetrating keratoplasty and scleral patch graft) was necessary. CONCLUSION: The finding of corneal and scleral involvement associated with connective tissue disease is a sign of the disease activity and usually requires imunossupressive therapy. The ophthalmologists should be aware of these conditions in order to early diagnose and apply the appropriate treatment.
Scleritis; Scleritis; Corneal ulcer; Corneal ulcer; Connective tissue; Immunossupression; Case report
