Abstract

Mooren's ulcer is a rare disease of presumed autoimmune aetiology. Some cases run a chronic severe course and fail to respond to local and systemic therapy. We report here such a case with bilateral Mooren's ulcer that failed to respond to local therapy with topical corticosteroids, silver nitrate, and conjunctival resection, as well as systemic immunosuppression with corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide, and azathioprine. Systemic cyclosporin (10 mg/kg/day) resulted in resolution of the corneal ulceration within two weeks of beginning treatment, and the patient has remained in remission after 15 months of therapy. Cyclosporin side effects included hirsutism, hypertension, increased blood levels of urea and creatinine, and abnormalities in liver function tests. All these resolved on reducing the dosage of cyclosporin. The results in this case suggest that cyclosporin is an effective agent in patients with severe sight threatening Mooren's ulcer.