RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Safety and Efficacy of Noncorticosteroid Triple Immunosuppressive Therapy in the Treatment of Refractory Chronic Noninfectious Uveitis in Childhood
JF The Journal of Rheumatology
JO J Rheumatol
FD The Journal of Rheumatology
SP jrheum.130594
DO 10.3899/jrheum.130594
A1 Jessica A.  Little
A1 Ethan S.  Sen
A1 Helen Strike
A1 Annie Hinchcliffe
A1 Catherine M.  Guly
A1 Richard W.J.  Lee
A1 Andrew D.  Dick
A1 Athimalaipet V.  Ramanan
YR 2013
UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2013/09/27/jrheum.130594.abstract
AB Objective To assess the safety and efficacy of noncorticosteroid triple immunosuppressive therapy in the treatment of refractory chronic noninfectious childhood uveitis. Methods Subjects were retrospectively selected from a database. Patients were included if they were diagnosed with chronic, noninfectious uveitis at 16 years of age or under and treated with triple immunosuppressive therapy for at least 6 months (following failure of a combination of 2 immunosuppressants). Patient demographics, diagnoses, duration of uveitis, drug dosages, active joint inflammation, and ophthalmologic data were recorded. Efficacy outcomes for triple therapy were recorded at 6 months. Results Thirteen patients with bilateral uveitis were included. Using Standardized Uveitis Nomenclature (SUN) criteria, at 6 months only 11 eyes (42%) had a 2-step improvement in anterior chamber cell inflammation (n = 26). In addition, 2 patients required additional oral corticosteroid treatment. There were 4 significant infectious adverse events during a total of 21.9 patient-years (PY) on triple therapy (0.18 events per PY). Conclusion In this group of children with refractory uveitis, addition of a third immunosuppressive agent did not confer substantial benefit in redressing ocular inflammation and was associated with significant infections in a minority of patients.