Acute Retinal Necrosis (ARN)

Abstract

Initially described in Japan in 1971 by Urayama and colleagues and termed Kirisawa's uveitis, acute retinal necrosis is a sudden onset unilateral or bilateral panuveitis that presents with iritis, vitreous inflammation, retinal periarteritis, optic neuropathy, and confluent peripheral retinal infiltrates [1-8]. The syndrome is now recognized to be predominantly the consequence of acute infection of the retina by alpha class Herpesvirus hominis [9, 10]. Consensus among members of the American Uveitis Society (AUS) is that the term acute retinal necrosis be applied only to those cases that conform to the clinical syndrome characterized by peripheral retinal necrosis with discrete borders, rapid progression with circumferential spread in untreated eyes, occlusive vasculopathy with arteriolar involvement, and prominent inflammation in the vitreous and anterior chamber. Optic neuropathy or atrophy, scleritis, and pain occur in some patients but are not part of the AUS diagnostic criteria [2, 11].