The Effect Of Fluorometholone On The Ocular Surface Of Patients With Epidemic Keratoconjunctivitis

The study aimed to investigate the effects of topical fluorometholone drops on the ocular surface of patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC).

Ophthalmology Department, Military Hospital of Tunis, Tunisia.

Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis El-Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.

We recruited the patients with a presumed diagnosis of EKC evolving more than two weeks after the onset of the symptoms and complicated by corneal sub-epithelial infiltrate. We excluded the patients who underwent ocular surgery in the previous three months or had moderate to severe blepharitis. Patients were treated with topical fluorometholone drops for six months and had a consistent follow-up. We evaluated the conjunctival hyperemia, the Schirmer's test without anesthesia, and tear film break-up time (TBUT) at baseline, first (M1), third (M3), and sixth months (M6).

We recruited Twenty-eight patients in this study. Initially, 52.6% of patients had conjunctival hyperemia. The mean Schirmer's test value was 12,95 ± 8,51 mm. The mean TBUT value was 6,3 ± 3,9 s. At M6, the Schirmer's test value and the tear film break-up time increased significantly by 7 ± 7,89 mm (p<0,0001) and 3,16 ± 3,84 s (p<0,0001) respectively. Conjunctival hyperemia decreased significantly (p=0,002) at M1 and increased significantly (p=0,035) between M3 and M6.

Topical fluorometholone was associated with a significant improvement of the tear film stability and aqueous tear film production. It also decreased conjunctival redness.