Switching from preserved prostaglandin therapy to preservative free tafluprost increases tear film thickness in patients with glaucoma

Abstract

Purpose : There is compelling evidence that chronic use of preservative-containing eye drops impacts ocular surface health. In the current study, we set out to investigate whether switching from topical preservative containing prostaglandin therapy to preservative-free tafluprost increases tear film thickness (TFT).

Methods : 30 patients under topical preservative-containing prostaglandin mono-therapy for at least 6 months were included in this study. Patients were then switched to preservative-free tafluprost eye drops once daily. TFT was measured before, 4 and 12 weeks after therapy change using a custom built ultra-high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Furthermore, clinical parameters of ocular surface disease were determined.

Results : Switching to unpreserved tafluprost increased TFT from 4.7µm±0.5µm to 5.0µm±0.6µm 4 weeks after therapy change. After 12 weeks TFT still tended to be increased (4.8µm±0.7µm). Break up time (BUT) significantly increased from 5.1s±2.3s to 7.2s±3.4s and to 10.1s±3.6s after therapy change. In addition, a significant decrease in corneal staining score from 1.8±0.7 to 1.4±0.8 after 4 weeks and to 0.7±0.7 after 12 weeks of treatment was observed. Switching to preservative free drops reduced DEQS score from 11.4±11.0 to 5.7±6.4 and to 4.7±7.5.

Conclusions : Our data show that switching from preservative-containing glaucoma therapy to preservative-free tafluprost leads to an increase in TFT and to an amelioration of ocular surface disease related signs and symptoms. Our results therefore suggest that switching to unpreserved tafluprost therapy is beneficial for ocular surface health in patients under long-term preserved prostaglandin eye drops.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.