Conditions: Corneal Ulcer Eye Infections, Bacterial
Keywords: Bacterial Infections Eye Diseases Bacterial Keratitis Visual Acuity
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 500
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether adding topical steroids improves the outcomes of bacterial corneal ulcers, especially visual acuity.

Detailed description:
Antimicrobial treatment of a bacterial corneal ulcer is generally effective in eradicating infection. However, "successful" treatment is not always associated with a good visual outcome. The scarring that accompanies the resolution of infection leaves many eyes blind. Some cornea specialists advocate the use of topical corticosteroids along with antibiotics in an effort to reduce immune-mediated tissue damage and scarring. Others fear using steroids to reduce the cornea's immune response will prolong or even exacerbate infection. Ophthalmologists have been divided on this issue for more than 30 years, and both approaches are acceptable according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Preferred Practice Patterns. Evidence from animal and human reports is mixed. A single randomized trial saw a non-significant benefit to steroids but was drastically underpowered (20 patients per study arm).

The study is a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial to determine whether adding topical steroids improves the outcomes of bacterial corneal ulcers. Five hundred bacterial corneal ulcers presenting to the Aravind Eye Hospitals, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Proctor Foundation, and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will be randomized to receive antibiotic plus steroid or antibiotic plus placebo. Participants will be followed closely until re-epithelialization and then rechecked at three weeks, three months and 12 months post enrollment. A subset of patients will be contacted for a follow-up visit four years post enrollment. The primary outcome is best spectacle-corrected visual acuity three months after enrollment, using best spectacle-corrected enrollment visual acuity as a co-variate.

A pilot study was conducted from January 2005 to August 2005 at Aravind Eye Hospital to assess the feasibility and safety and to estimate the sample size of a larger main trial. Forty-two patients with culture-proven bacterial keratitis were enrolled. They were treated and followed up as in the main trial, up to three months from enrollment.

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None

Interventions: intervention 1: Antibiotics intervention 2: Topical corticosteroid intervention 3: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: moxifloxacin 0.5% every one hour for 48 hours while awake and then every 2 hours until re-epithelialization intervention 2: prednisolone phosphate 1% with preservative four times a day for 1 week, then twice a day for 1 week, and finally once a day for 1 week intervention 3: 0.9% NaCl and preservative (same as in steroid) four times a day for 1 week, then twice a day for 1 week, and finally once a day for 1 week

Protocol document: