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. 2023 Apr 28;15(1):114-119.
doi: 10.4103/tjo.TJO-D-23-00001. eCollection 2025 Jan-Mar.

Results of long-term antiviral prophylactic treatment on the course of herpes zoster ophthalmicus with ocular involvement: A case series in a tertiary uveitis clinic - A 1-year follow-up

Arash Maleki  1   2   3 , Priya D Patel  2   3 , Amanda Colombo  2   3 , C Stephen Foster  2   3   4
Affiliations

Results of long-term antiviral prophylactic treatment on the course of herpes zoster ophthalmicus with ocular involvement: A case series in a tertiary uveitis clinic - A 1-year follow-up

Arash Maleki et al. Taiwan J Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Purpose: To study the efficacy of long-term antiviral monotherapy on herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) with eye involvement.

Materials and methods: The patients with primary, recurrent, and chronic HZO with at least 1 year of follow-up were included in the study. The primary endpoint of the study was HZO recurrence with ocular presentations.

Results: A total of 17 patients were included in the study. Eleven (64.7%) patients were included in the primary HZO group and 6 (35.3%) patients were included in the recurrent/chronic HZO group. In the primary HZO group, 10 (90.9%) patients responded to antiviral alone. One patient failed antiviral treatment after 7 months and responded to a combination of methotrexate and antiviral therapy. In the recurrent and chronic HZO group, 4 (66.7%) patients responded to isolated antiviral treatment. No systemic side effects were observed during the study period.

Conclusion: Long-term antiviral monotherapy may be an effective prophylactic treatment in patients with primary, recurrent, persistent HZO to treat the infection and maintain remission; however, this hypothesis should be examined in more potent study with larger population.

Keywords: Acyclovir; herpes zoster ophthalmicus; scleritis; uveitis; valaciclovir.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier curves demonstrates the accumulative recurrence of disease in each group (Group 1: Primary HZO and Group 2: Recurrent/chronic HZO) during the follow-up period. HZO: Herpes zoster ophthalmicus
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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