PHILADELPHIA — Patients with uveitis, the fifth leading cause of vision loss in the United States, treated with either systemic anti-inflammatory medicine or with a time-release implant surgically placed inside the eye experienced a similar degree of visual improvement over two years, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin. Results from the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Trial, supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), are published online in the journal Ophthalmology.

"The results of the MUST Trial will guide the management of uveitis for many years to come," said John Kempen, MD, PhD, associate professor of Ophthalmology and Epidemiology, and the study’s vice-chair. "Given that the visual results are similar at two years between the two approaches, clinicians can utilize whichever of the treatments best fits the anticipated side effect profile for an individual patient. Because the implant approach more often succeeds in controlling inflammation, the results suggest to me a role for implant therapy when systemic therapy is not working out well. The low risk of side effects of systemic therapy we observed should be encouraging to all physicians who manage inflammatory diseases with corticosteroids and immunosuppressants."

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