Epidemiology of Orbital Inflammatory Disease: An AAO IRIS Registry Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The current study queries the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) registry for data on the epidemiology, work-up, and management patterns of autoimmune orbital inflammation.

Methods

Analysis and description of patient data from the IRIS registry between 2013 and 2019 reviewing patients with autoimmune or idiopathic orbital inflammation with filters based on International Classification of Disease (ICD) and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes. Patients with thyroid eye disease, orbital cellulitis, and orbital abscess were excluded.

Main Outcome Measures

Demographic descriptions included gender, age, geographic region, and treatment. Sub-analysis was performed by assessing rates of imaging, biopsy, lab work-up, and diagnostic categories.

Results

In a final cohort of 20,584 patients, the mean age of onset of orbital inflammation was 51.7 years; 67% female; and 63% Caucasian, 21% unknown, 12% Black, 2.6% Asian, and 1.5% other. Only 49 had imaging, 78 had laboratory work-up, and 1,411 had biopsy codes. Treatment results showed 166 patients receiving antibiotics, 224 patients receiving steroids, and 35 patients receiving both.

Conclusions

This study assessed the epidemiology, diagnostic patterns, and treatment patterns for orbital inflammation through the AAO IRIS registry. Practise patterns suggest a relatively low overall rate of imaging and laboratory studies compared to biopsies, although this certainly under-represents the actual number of imaging and laboratory studies and exemplifies the inherent imprecision of using a large database. However, the methodology of this study provides a framework of approaching the IRIS registry for oculoplastic research.

KEYWORDS:

• Big data
• IgG4
• IRIS registry
• oculoplastic
• orbital inflammation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Proprietary interest statement

None of the authors have any financial interest that is related to the manuscript. This submission has not been published anywhere previously and that it is not simultaneously being considered for any other publication..

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2024.2322013

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.