Most common:

- Floaters

- Blurred vision

Intermediate uveitis normally only affects one eye. Less common is the presence of pain and photophobia.

Inflammation in the back of the eye is commonly characterized by:

- Floaters

- Blurred vision

- Photopsia or seeing flashing lights

Symptoms of scleritis include:

- Redness of the sclera and conjunctiva, sometimes changing to a purple hue

- Severe ocular pain, which may radiate to the temple or jaw. The pain is often described as deep or boring.

- Photophobia and tearing

- Decrease in visual acuity, possibly leading to blindness

The pain of episcleritis is less severe than in scleritis. In hyperemia, there is a visible increase in the blood flow to the sclera (hyperaemia), which accounts for the redness of the eye. Unlike in conjunctivitis, this redness will not move with gentle pressure to the conjunctiva.

Secondary keratitis or uveitis may occur with scleritis. The most severe complications are associated with necrotizing scleritis.

In the acute stage of the disease, a catarrhal conjunctivitis is present, with signs of ocular pain, usually blepharospasm, increased lacrimation, and photophobia. Miosis is also usually present. After a few days, this will progress to a keratitis and iridocyclitis. Other ocular problems may also occur, including conjunctival and corneal oedema, and aqueous flare.

After an acute flare-up, no clinical signs of disease may be seen for a prolonged period, which can vary from a few hours to a few years. With frequent acute incidents, though, additional clinical signs may be seen, including anterior and posterior synechiae, poor pupillary responses, cataracts, and a cloudy appearance to the vitreous humour.

Symptoms of episcleritis include mild eye pain, redness, and watery eyes. The pain of episcleritis is typically mild, less severe than in scleritis, and may be tender to palpation.

There are two types of episcleritis: the diffuse type, where the redness involves the entire episclera, and the nodular type, where the redness appears more nodular, involving only a small, well-circumscribed area (sectoral). The diffuse type of episcleritis may be less painful than the nodular type. Sometimes, small nodules are present within the episclera, which move slightly over the sclera with gentle pressure.

Discharge is absent with episcleritis, and vision is unaffected. Patients with episcleritis experience far less photophobia than patients with uveitis. Episcleritis does not cause the presence of cells or flare in the anterior chamber of the eye.

Intermediate uveitis is a form of uveitis localized to the vitreous and peripheral retina. Primary sites of inflammation include the vitreous of which other such entities as pars planitis, posterior cyclitis, and hyalitis are encompassed. Intermediate uveitis may either be an isolated eye disease or associated with the development of a systemic disease such as multiple sclerosis or sarcoidosis. As such, intermediate uveitis may be the first expression of a systemic condition. Infectious causes of intermediate uveitis include Epstein-Barr virus infection, Lyme disease, HTLV-1 virus infection, cat scratch disease, and hepatitis C.

Permanent loss of vision is most commonly seen in patients with chronic cystoid macular edema (CME). Every effort must be made to eradicate CME when present. Other less common causes of visual loss include retinal detachment, glaucoma, band keratopathy, cataract, vitreous hemorrhage, epiretinal membrane and choroidal neovascularization.

Clinical signs include redness of the eye, pain, blurring of vision, photophobia and floaters.

Patients with ARN typically present

- floaters

- redness of the eye

- flashes

- decreased sharpness of vision

- photophobia.

Though uncommon, some patients may experience pain. Most patients will only experience this in one eye (unilateral), though possible for the condition to be seen in both (bilateral, BARN). If the first eye is left without treatment, some cases have shown the disease progressing to the other eye in a month's time. Further progressed stages of the disease can cause blindness in the eye experiencing ARN. Though the disease may be present itself, the inflammation of the retina may not been visualized for decades after the initial signs.

Symptoms of this disorder include floaters, blurred vision, photopsia (flashing lights in eyes), loss of color vision and nyctalopia. In an eye examination, light-colored spots on the retina are seen. Complete loss of visual acuity may happenThe name of the condition comes from the small light-colored fundus spots on the retina, scattered in a pattern like birdshot from a shotgun, but these spots might not be present in early stages.

Red eye, swelling of conjunctiva and watering of the eyes are symptoms common to all forms of conjunctivitis. However, the pupils should be normally reactive, and the visual acuity normal.

Episcleritis is a benign, self-limiting inflammatory disease affecting part of the eye called the episclera. The episclera is a thin layer of tissue that lies between the conjunctiva and the connective tissue layer that forms the white of the eye (sclera). Episcleritis is a common condition, and is characterized by the abrupt onset of mild eye pain and redness.

There are two types of episcleritis, nodular and simple. Nodular episcleritis lesions have raised surface. Simple episcleritis lesions are flat. There are two subtypes. In diffuse simple episcleritis, inflammation is generalized. In sectoral simple episcleritis, the inflammation is restricted to one region.

Most cases of episcleritis have no identifiable cause, although a small fraction of cases is associated with various systemic diseases. Often people with episcleritis experience it recurrently. Treatment focuses on decreasing discomfort, and includes lubricating eye drops. More severe cases may be treated with topical corticosteroids or oral anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs).

Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), also known as moon blindness, recurrent iridocyclitis or periodic ophthalmia, is an acute, nongranulomatous inflammation of the uveal tract of the eye, occurring commonly in horses of all breeds, worldwide. The causative factor is not known, but several pathogeneses have been suggested. It is the most common cause of blindness in horses. In some breeds, a genetic factor may be involved.

Symptoms may include the presence of floating black spots, blurred vision, pain or redness in the eye, sensitivity to light, or excessive tearing.

Viral conjunctivitis is often associated with an infection of the upper respiratory tract, a common cold, or a sore throat. Its symptoms include excessive watering and itching. The infection usually begins with one eye, but may spread easily to the other.

Viral conjunctivitis shows a fine, diffuse pinkness of the conjunctiva, which is easily mistaken for the ciliary infection of iris (iritis), but there are usually corroborative signs on microscopy, particularly numerous lymphoid follicles on the tarsal conjunctiva, and sometimes a punctate keratitis.

Eye floaters and loss of accommodation are among the earliest symptoms. The disease may progress to severe uveitis with pain and photophobia. Commonly the eye remains relatively painless while the inflammatory disease spreads through the uvea, where characteristic focal infiltrates in the choroid named Dalén-Fuchs nodules can be seen. The retina, however, usually remains uninvolved, although perivascular cuffing of the retinal vessels with inflammatory cells may occur. Papilledema, secondary glaucoma, vitiligo, and poliosis of the eyelashes may accompany SO.

Hypopyon is a medical condition involving inflammatory cells in the anterior chamber of the eye.

It is a leukocytic exudate, seen in the anterior chamber, usually accompanied by redness of the conjunctiva and the underlying episclera. It is a sign of inflammation of the anterior uvea and iris, i.e. iritis, which is a form of anterior uveitis. The exudate settles at the dependent aspect of the eye due to gravity. It can be sterile (in bacterial corneal ulcer) or not sterile (fungal corneal ulcer).

Chorioretinitis is an inflammation of the choroid (thin pigmented vascular coat of the eye) and retina of the eye. It is a form of posterior uveitis. If only the choroid is inflamed, not the retina, the condition is termed choroiditis. The ophthalmologist's goal in treating these potentially blinding conditions is to eliminate the inflammation and minimize the potential risk of therapy to the patient.

Acute Retinal Necrosis (ARN), is a medical inflammatory condition of the eye. The condition presents itself as a necrotizing retinitis. The inflammation onset is due to certain herpes viruses, Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV).

People with the condition usually display redness of the eye, white or off-white colored patches that are patches of retinal necrosis. ARN can progress into other conditions such as uveitis, detachment of the retina, and ultimately can lead to blindness.

The disease was first characterized in 1971, in Japan. Akira Urayama and his colleagues had six patients whose cases showed signs of acute necrotizing retinitis, retinal arertitis, choroiditis, and late-onset retinal detachment. The combination of the conditions was given the name acute retinal necrosis. The first reports of ARN came about in 1971. It is unclear whether it was previously just reported as something else. Urayama and his colleagues reported the disease that they saw in six Japanese patients. Since then the disease has been seen in patient's with AIDS, children, and people who are immunocompromised. In 1978, Young and Bird named the disease when presented in both eyes, Bilateral Acute Retinal Necrosis, otherwise known as BARN.

Birdshot chorioretinopathy now commonly named "Birdshot Uveitis" or ""HLA-A29 Uveitis"" is a rare form of bilateral posterior uveitis affecting the eye. It causes severe, progressive inflammation of both the choroid and retina.

Affected individuals are almost exclusively caucasian and usually diagnosed in the fourth to sixth decade of their lives.

Sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) or Sympathetic uveitis is a bilateral diffuse granulomatous uveitis (a kind of inflammation) of both eyes following trauma to one eye. It can leave the patient completely blind. Symptoms may develop from days to several years after a penetrating eye injury.

Those with conjunctivitis may report mild irritation or scratchiness, but never extreme pain, which is an indicator of more serious disease such as keratitis, corneal ulceration, iridocyclitis, or acute glaucoma.

The eye involvement can cause the following inflammatory disorders:

- endophthalmitis

- uveitis

- chorioretinitis

Anterior uveitis develops in 40–50% of cases with HZO within 2 weeks of onset of the skin rashes. Typical HZO keratitis at least mild iritis, especially if Hutchinson's sign is positive for the presence of vescicles upon the tip of the nose.

Features:

This non-granulomatous iridocyclitis is associated with:

- Small keratic precipitates

- Mild aqueous flare

- Occasionally haemorrhagic hypopion.

HZO uveitis is associated with complications such as iris atrophy and secondary glaucoma are not uncommon. Complicated cataract may develop in the late stages of the disease.

A reduction in visual acuity in a 'red eye' is indicative of serious ocular disease, such as keratitis, iridocyclitis, and glaucoma, and never occurs in simple conjunctivitis without accompanying corneal involvement.