Long-term Efficacy of TNF-alpha Inhibitors on Persistent Uveitic Macular Edema: A Swiss Multicenter Cohort Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To assess the efficacy of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors (TNFi) on uveitic macular edema (ME) unresponsive to conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs).

Methods

This multicenter retrospective study included patients with uveitic ME persisting despite csDMARDs. The effect of an additional TNFi on central retinal thickness (CRT), best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and corticosteroid need was evaluated.

Results

Thirty-five eyes (26 patients, mean age 42.9 ± 15.2 years) were included. CRT decreased from 425 ± 137 µm to 294 ± 66 µm (p < .001) and 280 ± 48 µm (p < .001) at 1 and 4 years of follow-up, respectively. BCVA improved from 0.28 ± 0.22 to 0.21 ± 0.48 (1 year, p = .013) and 0.08 ± 0.13 logMAR (4 years, p = .002). The proportion of patients requiring systemic corticosteroids decreased from 88.5% to 34.8% (1 year) and 15.4% (4 years).

Conclusion

The addition of a TNFi resulted in an improvement of CRT and BCVA for up to 4 years in uveitic ME but rescue treatments were needed for some patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Adalimumab
• infliximab
• uveitis
• macular edema
• TNF-alpha inhibitors

Disclosure statement

Justus G. Garweg acts as an advisor for several pharmaceutical companies (AbbVie, Alcon, Roche, Bayer and Novartis) and participates in several international industry-sponsored clinical studies without any bearing on this work. All authors declare that they have no potential conflict of interests.

Additional information

Funding

No external funding was received for this study.