Mycophenolate Mofetil Therapy in Refractory Inflammatory Eye Disease.

Purpose: To study the efficacy and incidence of treatment-related side effects of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) therapy in patients with noninfectious inflammatory eye diseases.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 27 Chilean patients treated for noninfectious inflammatory eye diseases using MMF therapy over a 10-year period. Main outcome measures were: ability to control ocular inflammation and to taper prednisone to ≤10 mg daily (treatment success); incidence of treatment-related side effects.

Results: The proportion of patients with sustained control of inflammation was 81.48% at 6 months. Additionally 55.56% and 22.22% of patients succeeded in tapering their prednisone to 5-10 mg/day and <5 mg/day, at 6 months. Two patients developed a neoplasia during MMF therapy; however, this cohort is too small to interpret the significance of this relation to MMF treatment.

Conclusions: MMF seems to be an effective corticosteroid-sparing agent with an acceptable safety profile.