Purpose: To assess the outcome of scleral buckling surgery using a non-contact wide-angle viewing system for fundus visualization in patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment without proliferative vitreoretinopathy. Patients and Methods: Sixteen eyes of 16 patients underwent scleral buckling using a non-contact wide-angle viewing system combined with a 25-gauge illumination fibre inserted into the sclera at the pars plana. Results: The mean age of the patients was 53.6 ± 13.7 years and the mean follow-up time was 13.4 ± 2.8 months. Retinal reattachment was achieved in 13 of the 16 eyes (81%). Three eyes underwent vitrectomy with silicone oil injection because of development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy in 2 eyes and scleral perforation due to excessive indentation during cryoretinopexy in 1 eye. Two eyes developed limited subretinal haemorrhage during subretinal fluid drainage. Conclusion: Simultaneous use of a non-contact wide-angle viewing system combined with a 25-gauge light fibre illumination for fundus visualization brings the advantages of microsurgery and indirect ophthalmoscopy into scleral buckling surgery.

This review aims to provide a critical digest of the recent studies that enhance our understanding of Behçet's syndrome by evaluating time trends, differences in disease course between men and women, and between patients with an early and late disease onset, progress in disease assessment, novel findings on immunopathogenesis and genetics, clinical features and differential diagnosis of eye, vascular, nervous system and gastrointestinal system involvement, and new data on treatment modalities including tofacitinib, and apremilast, as well as surgical interventions.

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Background: Genetic factors and oxidative damage have been shown to have a role in the development of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Aim: To determine the effects of genetic polymorphisms of glutathione S transferase (GST)M1 and GSTT1 on the risk of POAG in a Turkish population. Methods: Using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), GSTM1 and GSTT1 gene polymorphisms were analysed in 144 patients with POAG and in 121 otherwise healthy controls of similar age. Results: The GSTM1 positive genotype and the GSTT1 null genotype had an increased risk of developing POAG (p,0.001, OR 2.93, 95% CI 1.66 to 5.20 and OR 4.25, 95% CI 2.30 to 7.80, respectively). The risk of glaucoma also increased significantly in subjects with a combination of GSTM1 positive and GSTT1 null genotypes (p,0.001, OR 3.46, 95% CI 1.64 to 7.38). Conclusion: The GSTM1 positive genotype and GSTT1 null genotype or the combination of both may be associated with the increased risk of development of POAG in the Turkish population.

Ocular inflammatory disorders disproportionately affect women, and the majority of affected women are of childbearing age. The role of sex or reproductive hormones has been proposed in many other inflammatory or autoimmune disorders, and findings from non-ocular autoimmune diseases suggest a complex interaction between sex hormones, genetic factors and the immune system. However, despite the age and sex bias, factors that influence this disparity are complicated and unclear. This review aims to evaluate the gender disparities in prevalence, incidence and severity of the most common infectious and non-infectious ocular inflammatory disorders.

Behçet's syndrome (BS) is a vasculitis involving several organ systems including the eyes. Ocular involvement is one of the most disabling complications of BS, causing loss of vision that may progress to blindness if left untreated. The typical form of ocular involvement is a relapsing and remitting panuveitis and retinal vasculitis. Initial attacks may spontaneously improve and subsequently disappear in a few weeks but tend to recur if left untreated. Destructive and recurrent attacks, especially with posterior segment and retina involvement, may cause irreversible ocular structural changes and permanent damage in sensory retina, resulting in loss of vision. The risk of irreversible damage to ocular tissue which may result in loss of vision warrants early and intensive treatment especially in patients at high risk such as young men who tend to follow an aggressive disease course. The management strategy involves rapid suppression of inflammation during the attacks and prevention of recurrent attacks. Local and systemic measures including immunosuppressives, corticosteroids, and biologic agents are used for this purpose. Surgery may be required in selected cases. The prognosis of eye involvement has greatly improved over the last decades with the effective use of immunosuppressives.

Most of the published data relate to classical forms of rheumatic diseases (RD) and information on rare inflammatory disorders such as Behçet’s syndrome (BS) and familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is limited. We studied the frequency of side effects and disease flares after COVID-19 vaccination with either Pfizer/BioNTech or Sinovac/CoronaVac in 256 patients with BS, 247 with FMF, and 601 with RD. Telephone interviews were conducted using a questionnaire survey in a cross-sectional design in patients with BS, FMF, and RD followed by a single university hospital. Study participants were vaccinated either with CoronaVac (BS:109, FMF: 90, and RD: 343,) or BioNTech (BS: 147, FMF: 157 and RD: 258). The majority have received double dose (BS: 94.9%, FMF 92.3% and RD: 86.2%). BioNTech ensured a significantly better efficacy than CoronaVac against COVID-19 in all patient groups (BS: 1.4% vs 10.1%; FMF: 3.2% vs 12.2%, RD:2.7% vs 6.4%). Those with at least one adverse event (AE) were significantly more frequent among those vaccinated with BioNTech than those with CoronaVac (BS: 86.4% vs 45%; FMF: 83.4% vs 53.3%; and RD: 83.3% vs 45.5%). The majority of AEs were mild to moderate and transient and this was true for either vaccine. There were also AEs that required medical attention in all study groups following CoronaVac (BS: 5.5%, FMF: 3.3%, and RD:2.9%) or BioNTech (BS: 5.4%, FMF: 1.9%, and RD: 4.7%). The main causes for medical assistance were disease flare and cardiovascular events. Patients with BS (16.0%) and FMF (17.4%) were found to flare significantly more frequently when compared to those with RD (6.0%) ( p < 0.001). This was true for either vaccine. BS patients reported mainly skin-mucosa lesions; there were however, 11 (4.3%) who developed major organ attack such as uveitis, thrombosis or stroke. Flare in FMF patients were associated mainly with acute serositis with or without fever. Arthralgia/arthritis or inflammatory back pain were observed mainly in the RD group. Our study demonstrates that BS and FMF patients vaccinated with either CoronaVac or BioNTech demonstrated similar AE profile and frequency compared to RD patients. AEs that required physician consultation or hospitalization occurred in all study groups after either CoronaVac or BioNTech. Increased frequency of flares in BS and FMF compared to that seen in RD might reflect defects in innate immunity and deserves further investigation. Caution should be required when monitoring these patients after vaccination.

Behçet’s syndrome (BS) is a multisystem vasculitis that presents with a variety of mucocutaneous manifestations such as oral and genital ulcers, papulopustular lesions and erythema nodosum as well as ocular, vascular, gastrointestinal and nervous system involvement. Although it occurs worldwide, it is especially prevalent in the Far East and around the Mediterranean Sea. Male gender and younger age at disease onset are associated with a more severe disease course. The management of BS depends on the severity of symptoms. If untreated, morbidity and mortality are considerably high in patients with major organ involvement. Multidisciplinary patient care is essential for the management of BS, as it is for other multisystem diseases. Rheumatologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, cardiovascular surgeons and gastroenterologists are members of the multidisciplinary team. In this study, we reviewed the epidemiology, etiology, diagnostic criteria sets, clinical findings and treatment of BS and highlighted the importance of the multidisciplinary team in the management of BS.