SYMPTOMATIC OR METASTATIC IRITIS.
Complications of infectious diseases, influenza, contagious pneumonia, strangles, tuberculosis, omphalitis. Symptoms: exudation of fibrine and blood, with those of simple iritis. Treatment: as in iritis, plus measures for the specific primary disease. When second eye is threatened enucleation.
Under this head Möller describes those forms of iritis which occur as complications of various infectious diseases. It has long been observed that iritis and other ophthalmias, occurred as complications of the acute infectious diseases of the respiratory organs of the horse formerly known under the general name of “influenza.” More recently many veterinarians and others have classed these influenza iritis separately under the name of “pinkeye.” The same can be said of “contagious pneumonia” (brustsenche) of horses which is distinctly caused by the diplococcus (streptococcus) pneumoniæ equina. Attention was called to the iritic complication of this disease in 1881 by Siedamgrotzky and it has been often noticed since. Conjunctivitis is however a more frequent complication of this disease than iritis. In both influenza and contagious pneumonia the iritis often supervenes when convalescence has apparently set in. Strangles is another affection in which the iris occasionally suffers. Mathieu has described tuberculosis of the iris in cattle, and Möller mentions with some hesitancy cases of iritis which complicated the infection of the navel in new born animals.
The symptoms of symptomatic iritis vary according to the particular infection. In addition to the fibrinous exudate the infections of the respiratory organs are liable to be complicated by blood extravasations. In influenza this may show as deep blotches on the bulbar conjunctiva and in chemosis. In contagious pneumonia Schütz met with iritis of a distinctly hæmorrhagic character.
In Matthieu’s cases of tubercle of the iris there was first a slight lachrymation, and soon the iris assumed a grayish tint, and became uneven and unduly approximated to the cornea though it failed to become adherent to it. The swellings of the iris increased and became of a grayish yellow color, and the pupil was usually contracted and varied little in size. Post mortem examination showed the presence of tubercles. The same condition has become familiar in connection with experimental inoculation in the eye. As in ordinary iritis adhesion to the capsule of the lens and cataract are common results.
Apart from the treatment of the specific primary disease this type of iritis demands the same treatment as other forms. Strong atropia lotions to prevent or break up adhesions and antiseptic astringents are especially indicated. When implication of the second eye is threatened it may be desirable to remove the first by enucleation. (See Panophthalmitis).