TREATMENT OF KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS SICCA IN DOGS WITH CYCLOSPORINE OPHTHALMIC OINTMENT - A EUROPEAN CLINICAL FIELD TRIAL

The results are reported of a six-week clinical trial of the efficacy of 0.2 per cent cyclosporine ophthalmic ointment for the treatment of chronic idiopathic keratoconjunctivitis sicca in dogs in the United Ki ngdom, Germany and France, The 87 dogs were referral cases with a hist ory of chronic unresponsive keratoconjunctivitis sicca of which the ae tiology was unknown, and they had to meet stringent criteria before be ing included in the trial, The clinical response to the therapy was mo nitored after seven, 21 and 42 days and the results for the right and left eyes were analysed separately, There was a statistically signific ant increase in lacrimal secretion throughout the study, with most of the increase occurring during the first week of treatment, The percent age of eyes with improved lacrimal secretion was higher in the dogs wi th initial Schirmer tear test values greater than or equal to 2 mm/min than in those with initial values of 0 or 1 mm/min, The observed stea dy improvement in conjunctival health was not always correlated with a n improvement in lacrimal secretion, The incidence of blepharospasm, o ther signs of discomfort and corneal oedema decreased significantly du ring the study, No improvement in corneal vascularisation or pigmentat ion was observed during the six-week trial, Overall, 76 per cent of th e left eyes and 87 per cent of the right eyes were considered to have improved at the end of the treatment period, No serious adverse reacti ons were observed and only mild irritation was noticed by the owners i mmediately after the application of the ointment, This irritation resu lted in the recording of an adverse reaction at the scheduled observat ions in only three cases.