Incidence of sympathetic ophthalmia. Myth and reality

We present literary data on the incidence of sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) after an open eye trauma or eye surgeries, and the incidence of preventive enucleation. The statement that SO is today a disappearing disease is a myth. Even though it is a rare disease, its incidence after an open trauma amounts to 0.46% (by the data of Russian authors), or to 0.24% in children and 0.3-0.9% in adults (by foreign data) and does not tend to drop. After cataract extraction or antiglaucomatous surgery, SO is almost nonexistent. In contrast, repeated interventions, primarily vitreoretinal surgery, constitute a risk factor of SO, so that postsurgical SO in this case is 0.06-0.12%. The topical character of SO issue is determined by the fact that, due to SO threat the surgeons often (in 4.3 to 20% of cases) resort to preventive enucleation // Russian Ophthalmological Journal, 2016; 3: 95-100. doi: 10.21516/2072-0076-2016-9-3-95-100