Use of ocular hypotensive prostaglandin analogues in patients with uveitis: Does their use increase anterior uveitis and cystoid macular oedema?

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia, Australia
² Department of Ophthalmology Liverpool Hospital, Australia
³ Moorfields Eye Hospital, United Kingdom

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: peter.mccluskey2{at}sswahs.nsw.gov.au.

Accepted 9 April 2008

	Abstract

Aim: A retrospective comparative case series was studied to determine whether the use of prostaglandin (PG) analogues to treat raised intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with uveitis resulted in an increase in the frequency of anterior uveitis or CME.

Methods: 163 eyes of 84 consecutive patients with uveitis and raised IOP treated with a PG analogue at two tertiary referral uveitis clinics were identified over a 3-month period. Control eyes were selected as those uveitic eyes of the same patients, which were treated with topical IOP-lowering agent(s) other than a PG analogue. Pre-treatment IOP was compared to the mean IOP during PG analogue treatment. The frequency of anterior uveitis and CME during PG analogue treatment was compared to the frequency of these complications in the control eyes during non-PG IOP-lowering treatment.

Results: Significant IOP reductions were observed during PG analogue treatment. There was no significant difference in the frequency of anterior uveitis in those eyes treated with PG analogues and those treated with non-PG agents (P=0.87, Fisher's exact test). None of the 69 uveitic eyes without a previous history of CME developed this complication. There was no increase in the frequency of visually significant CME during PG treatment compared to that during non-PG treatment (P=0.19, Fisher's exact test).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that PG analogues are potent topical medications for lowering raised IOP in patients with uveitis and are not associated with increased risk of CME or anterior uveitis.