Original ArticleTreatment of Acute Retinal Necrosis Syndrome with Oral Antiviral Medications
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
This study was a retrospective, uncontrolled, interventional case series of consecutive patients with symptomatic ARN syndrome treated solely with oral antiviral medications at a university hospital vitreoretinal service.
Results
Patient demographic, medical history, and diagnostic data are summarized in Table 1. The 5 men and 3 women in this series ranged in age at symptom onset from 15 to 90 years (median, 44 years). Three of the 8 patients had been previously diagnosed with systemic malignancies. Non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was present in 2 patients. Five patients had a history of previous cutaneous or neurologic herpetic infection.
All patients in this series presented with complaints of decreased and
Discussion
Acute retinal necrosis syndrome is an infectious uveitis usually caused by HSV-1 or -2 or VZV.2, 3, 4 It has a bimodal age distribution peaking at approximately 20 and 50 years of age.5 Although there is no clear racial association with ARN, some individuals may be immunologically predisposed to developing the ARN syndrome. Holland et al10 found that > 50% of ARN patients had HLA-DQw7 antigen compared with 19% of matched controls. Also, 16% of ARN patients expressed HLA-Bw62DR4 phenotype
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2020, American Journal of Ophthalmology Case ReportsCitation Excerpt :Patients who received both antivirals IVT and systemic therapy compared to systemic therapy alone showed slightly improved visual outcomes and decreased risk of retinal detachment.26 However, systemic antivirals are the mainstay of treatment to arrest progression of retinal necrosis in the affected eye and to prevent involvement of the fellow eye.27,28 While early treatment of ARN is critical to prevent irreversible damage, there is currently no definitive therapeutic protocol.
Acute Retinal Necrosis: Virological Features Using Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction, Therapeutic Management, and Clinical Outcomes
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Manuscript no. 2006-44.
The authors have no financial interests in any devices or products mentioned in the article.