Objective: To describe three patients who developed Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (VKH) after cutaneous injury.
Design: Retrospective case series.
Participants: Three patients seen in the uveitis clinic at Aravind Eye Hospital and Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology, Madurai, India, participated.
Main outcome measures: The history, evaluation, and management of the three patients were summarized.
Results: Three patients developed VKH syndrome shortly after cutaneous injury. In each case, the affected area of skin became vitiliginous on healing and simultaneous with the onset of ocular symptoms. One patient developed additional ectopic areas of vitiligo. All three patients developed chronic, bilateral, diffuse uveitis, one associated with an exudative retinal detachment and two with Dalen-Fuchs-like nodules. Well-recognized complications of VKH syndrome that occurred in the authors' patients included geographic atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium (3 of 3), cataract (3 of 3), and glaucoma (1 of 3). Ocular inflammation was well controlled in each patient with local or systemic corticosteroids or both. In one patient, the area of vitiligo showed increased pigmentation in response to systemic corticosteroid treatment.
Conclusions: Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome may follow cutaneous injury, supporting the notion that this disorder may result from systemic sensitization to shared melanocytic antigens.