Late Ocular Complications in Congenital Rubella Syndrome

Ocular consequences of the congenital rubella syndrome are not limited to abnormalities noted in the neonatal period. Additional abnormalities may appear years and even decades after birth. Thirteen patients are presented in whom glaucoma has been diagnosed 3 to 22 years after birth. This acquired form of glaucoma has occurred in microphthalmic eyes in all but two cases. In all patients, the lens was cataractous early in life and had either been removed surgically or had been absorbed spontaneously. The diagnosis of late onset glaucoma appears to be difficult to make and is often overlooked. A smaller but overlapping group of patients with congenital rubella syndrome had keratic precipitates without other evidence of acute ocular inflammation. Recognition of these late ocular complications is particularly relevant, since the affected youngsters born during the last major US rubella epidemic in the early 1960s are now reaching late adolescence.