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Chlorambucil therapy is a highly effective treatment for chronic, severe uveitis
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SANTIAGO, Chile — A short-term treatment regimen of high-dose chlorambucil appears to be highly effective in patients with chronic and severe anterior uveitis, according to a study presented here.
Emilio M. Dodds, MD, at the Consultores Oftalmologicos in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reviewed the records of 17 patients with chronic uveitis resulting from Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (five patients), sympathetic ophthalmia (five patients), Behcet’s disease (three patients), retinal vasculitis (two patients), Wegener’s granulomatosis (one patient) and orbital pseudotumor (one patient). Dr. Dodds presented the treatment results in a poster at the Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology.
Patients received weekly increased doses of chlorambucil until their white blood count dropped to 2,400 mm³ or their platelet count was less than 100,000. Complete remission was achieved in 16 patients (94%). The mean dose required to decrease the counts was 22.2 mg; the mean treatment duration time was 3.35 months.
“High-dose, short-term chlorambucil appears to be an effective way to induce complete remission in cases of chronic and severe inflammatory disease,” Dr. Dodds concluded.
While effective and low-cost, he also noted that possible side effects include sterility, bone marrow depression, infection risk and need of a transfusion.