Ocular immunology and vitreoretinal surgery “face to face"

The clinical assessment of most of vitreo-retinal (VR) inflammations is often challenging: the clinical picture of such diseases can be overlapping and, despite the advances in medical technologies, the diagnostic tools might not provide data which can be conclusive. At this point, the possibility to take a vitreous tap via pars plana can help the ocular immunologist to differentiate between different sub-sets of infectious diseases and masquerade syndrome. The term "Masquerade Syndrome" was first used in 1967 to describe a case of conjunctival carcinoma that manifested as chronic conjunctivitis. Masquerade syndromes are disorders that occur with intraocular inflammation and are often misdiagnosed as a chronic idiopathic uveitis. Very often mesquerade syndrome is a synonymous of intraocular lymphoma which can present insidious clinical pictures, which are very often confused. The possibility to test the interleukines' ratio and to analyze the cytology represents a great scientific advance. A clearer role of VR surgery is played for all the complications of uveitis, such as uveitic retinal detachment, inflammatory macular pucker and dense persistent vitritis. VR surgery can warrant an important contribution to the clinical outcome.