Sympathetic uveitis after giant tear repair.

A 33-year-old Hispanic man developed sympathetic ophthalmia 4.5 months after vitrectomy and repeat scleral buckling for a giant retinal tear in an aphakic previously traumatized eye. The patient had gray-white, subretinal nodules with characteristic changes of sympathetic uveitis detected by fluorescein angiography. The fluorescein angiographic and clinical findings revealed a dramatic response to steroid treatment: visual acuity returned to the previous 20/20 level within 5 weeks of therapy.