Ocular Graft Versus Host Disease: The Patient Experience
Journal Title: Ophthalmology and Vision Science - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Purpose: Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is a destructive complication causing adverse systemic and ocular effects that occurs in patients following a bone marrow transplant. Through patient surveys we identified the initial presenting ocular symptoms, compared effectiveness of common treatments, and investigated the functionality of patients affected by this destructive process using the National Institutes of Health Eye Score. Methods: National Institutes of Health Eye Score Results: In the patients surveyed from August 2013 to May 2014 demonstrated: the most common initial symptoms were ocular dryness (63%), followed by general irritation (58%), light sensitivity (53%), and red eyes (47%). The most successful overall treatments were: lubricating eye drops (44% of patients), and contact lenses (17%). Patients treated with Restasis (cyclosporine) for their symptoms reported: no improvement (53%), improvement (37%), no change (5%), allergic reaction (5%). The Level of debilitation reported showed that over a third of patients (36%) self reported their symptoms as being severe according to the National Institutes of Health Eye Score even after being treated. Correlation coefficients were analyzed and showed a strong connection between severity and commonality of symptoms in the categories of dryness (r = 0.9528), light sensitivity (r = 0.7658) and red eyes (r = 0.8039), along with moderate correlation with ocular irritation (r = 0.7081). Conclusions: Ocular Graft vs Host disease is severely debilitating to over one third of patients affected by it. The most common presenting symptom is dry eyes. Restasis was found to be ineffective in the majority of patients. The most effective treatment overall was lubricating eye drops.
Authors and Affiliations
Maximilian Padilla MD, Roshni Ranjit MD, Edgar Espana MD
Keywords
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