Study: Adalimumab improves refractory pediatric uveitis

Madrid, Spain-Adalimumab may be a viable treatment option for patients with steroid-resistant refractory pediatric uveitis, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

The goal of the study was to evaluate the effect of adalimumab on eye inflammation in children with refractory pediatric uveitis. The 15 children (12 female, average age 12 years) examined in the study had previously been treated with systemic steroids and methotrexate, and several of them had also failed to respond to immunosuppressive therapies.

After subcutaneous injection with the drug (dosage depended on weight) every 2 weeks for an average of 32 months, 85.7% of patients showed improvement of anterior/posterior chamber inflammatory activity, usually after 6 weeks of treatment.

The treatment was considered effective according to Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature Working Group grading criteria in 60% of patients, although 4 patients failed to respond at all, while efficacy tended to ebb over time.

Only minor injection-site side effects were observed.

“The results of the present study suggest that adalimumab is a reasonable first biological agent in cases of refractory noninfectious uveitis in children with good results and a reasonable side effect profile,” said Luciano Bravo Ljubetic, MD, ophthalmology service,  Instituto de Investigacion Hospital Universitario La Paz, Spain, and the study’s lead investigator.

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