Traumatic Iritis

The human eye gets its colour from a circular pigmented membrane called the iris. Made up of muscular fibres, the iris controls the amount of light entering through the pupil or centre of the eye, to give you clear vision. When the iris becomes inflamed or damaged due to trauma (blunt force) to the eyes, it is termed as traumatic iritis. Symptoms of traumatic iritis include pain, blurred vision, tearing, redness, swelling and sensitivity to light exposure.

When you present to the clinic with a history and symptoms consistent with traumatic iritis, your doctor will assess your visual acuity, eye pressure and perform a slit lamp microscopic examination for the presence of inflammatory cells, red blood cells and iris trauma. Pupil dilation to examine for associated injury to the retina or optic nerve will also be needed.

Traumatic iritis can be treated using cycloplegic drops (eye drops which paralyse the cells of the iris to reduce pain) and steroid eye drops, which help to reduce inflammation in the iris.