A study on the use of tacrolimus eye oitment (0.03%) in allergic eye disease

Abstract

Aim: To study the effect of 0.03% tacrolimus eye ointment in allergic eye disease Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on patients suffering from recurrent allergic eye disease. All those patients who used steroids frequently because of recurrence or chronic refractory cases were included in this study. We included 48 cases in this study. Tacrolimus 0.03% eye ointment was used twice daily for 3 months and effect was seen in terms of improvement in symptoms, signs and any recurrence if occurred after stopping treatment. Results: Mean age of the patient was 21.04 7.02 and mean duration of allergic eye disease was 3.52 0.94. Symptoms and sign scores shown improvement after using tacrolimus eye ointment for 3 months. Itching and redness (88% & 82% respectively) improved dramatically at the end of 1 month. Recurrence was noticed at 6th month follow up in 6 cases after stopping tacrolimus eye ointment so it was restarted. While in 42 cases (87.5%) we didn’t notice any recurrence after stopping tacrolimus eye ointment. Conclusion: Tacrolimus eye ointment (0.03%) is effective in controlling allergic eye disease and is very effective steroid sparing drug in chronic recurrent cases where frequent use of steroids is required. Keywords: Allergic eye disease, Vernal keratoconjunctivitis, Perennial allergic conjunctivitis, Immunomodulators & mast cell stabilizers.