title: Side effects in the treatment of herpetic keratitis.
abstract: Various side effects due to antiherpetic drugs observed in the last ten years in our department were studied. A total of 132 patients were treated with 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (IDU), 69 with trifluorothymidine (F3T), 58 with acyclovir (ACV) and 33 with adenine arabinoside (ara-A). Patch tests were routinely done when patients exhibited contact dermatitis. Of the patients treated with IDU, 3 (2.3%) showed contact dermatitis, 2 (1.5%) follicular conjunctivitis and 1 (0.8%) punctate keratopathy. Of the patients treated with F3T, 7 (10.1%) exhibited contact dermatitis and 1 (1.4%) follicular conjunctivitis. In the group treated with ACV, 2 (3.4%) patients showed punctate keratopathy. The patients who received ara-A did not show any side effects. We found that F3T caused contact dermatitis more frequently in Japanese people than Europeans. These side effects were resolved by switching to another anti-herpetic drug without the occurrence of cross-allergy. Therefore, switching to another drug is strongly recommended when patients exhibit side effects in the treatment of herpetic keratitis. Other complications were allergy to atropine and to drug preservative.
mesh_terms: D000212:Acyclovir / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003231:Conjunctivitis / Q000139:chemically induced; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D003877:Dermatitis, Contact / Q000139:chemically induced; D006801:Humans; D007065:Idoxuridine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007635:Keratitis, Dendritic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013936:Thymidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D014271:Trifluridine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014740:Vidarabine / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D014740:Vidarabine; D007065:Idoxuridine; D014271:Trifluridine; D013936:Thymidine; D000212:Acyclovir