Incidence of Uveitis Following Initiation of Prostaglandin Analogs Versus Other Glaucoma Medications: A Study from the SOURCE Repository

Purpose: To evaluate the risk of incidence rates of uveitis among patients starting topical glaucoma therapy.

Design: Retrospective database study utilizing the Sight Outcomes Research Collaborative (SOURCE) Ophthalmology Data Repository.

Participants: Adult glaucoma patients who were recently started on topical glaucoma therapy.

Methods: Using data from 10 health systems contributing data to the SOURCE data repository, we identified all adult glaucoma patients who had been newly started on a topical glaucoma medication (prostaglandin analogues (PGAs), beta-blockers (BBs), alpha agonists (AAs), and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (CAIs)). Patients with pre-existing documentation of uveitis were excluded.

Main outcome measures: Incidence of uveitis within 3 months of initiating therapy with different topical glaucoma medications.

Results: We included 67,517 patients who were newly prescribed a topical glaucoma medication. The mean age of the patients was 67.3±13.2 years and ∼59% were females. A total of 567 patients (0.87%) developed uveitis within 3 months of initiating the therapy. The incidence of uveitis was 0.32%, 1.95%, 1.63%, and 1.68% for users of PGAs, BBs, AAs, and CAIs, respectively. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, individuals using topical BBs, AAs, and CAIs had significantly higher odds of developing uveitis versus those using PGAs (P<0.001 for all comparisons).

Conclusions: The use of PGAs was not associated with higher odds of developing uveitis compared to other classes of topical glaucoma medications.