Intraocular pressure, safety, and quality of life in glaucoma patients switching to latanoprost from monotherapy treatments.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the efficacy, safety and quality of life in ocular hypertensive or open-angle glaucoma patients who required alteration in previous therapy and were changed to latanoprost.

METHODS

A prospective, multicenter, active, historical controlled trial in which qualified patients had previous therapy substituted with latanoprost 0.005% and were followed for up to 6 months.

RESULTS

3179 patients were included in the intent-to-treat analysis. In all patients latanoprost reduced the intraocular pressure (IOP) from 20.1 +/- 3.9 to 17.1 +/- 3.5 mm Hg (p< 0.0001) and when compared to previous monotherapies: beta-blockers (-3.0 +/- 3.5, n = 1976), alpha-agonists (-3.6 +/- 3.7, n = 581), miotics (-2.8 +/- 3.0, n = 21), carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (-3.2 +/- 3.5, n = 198), and other prostaglandin analogs (-1.6 +/- 3.7, n = 402). The most common ocular adverse event with latanoprost was conjunctival hyperemia (n = 66, 2.0% incidence) and the most common systemic adverse event was headache (n = 9, 0.2%). Over the 6-month treatment interval 89.8% of patients were maintained on latanoprost. On the solicited symptom survey patients showed a preference for latanoprost compared to previous therapy for several reasons: (depending on the product) dryness, blurred vision, tearing, stinging on instillation, crusting, itching, fatigue, dizziness, despondency and dry mouth (p < 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Latanoprost generally provides reduced IOP, limited side-effects, improvement in many quality of life measures and is maintained in patients who required a substitution from previous monotherapy.