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Although it is considered more common for an internist, family doctor, cardiologist or pulmonologist
to advise patients not to smoke tobacco, it is also our job as primary eye care providers to educate
patients about smoking cessation.
In addition to the obvious systemic hazards, smoking is a risk factor for several common ocular conditions, including
AMD and cataracts. However, many clinicians may not know that there is one other ocular pathology directly associated
with smoking—uveitis. In fact, if a patient with a history of smoking presents with recurrent iritis, you should
advise him or her that smoking may be a key-contributing factor to their chronic inflammation.
In March 2010, Phoebe Lin, M.D., Ph.D., and associates published an article in Ophthalmology that reviewed the
case histories of 564 patients who were diagnosed with iritis during an eight-year period.¹ Upon comparing the
patient data to equal subsets, the researchers determined that patients with a history of cigarette smoking were
2.2 times more likely to develop uveitis than patients who did not smoke. They also noted a higher incidence of
panuveitis and cystoid macular edema in patients who smoked.
Sometimes, our patients are not aware of all of the conditions that potentially could be related to smoking. However,
your recommendation to quit smoking ultimately could motivate your patients to break their habit and prevent major
systemic and/or ocular disease.
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