Severe corneal manifestations of graft-versus-host disease: Experience of a tertiary referral center

Purpose: Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a common complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). GVHD may affect several organs, including ocular manifestations, ranging from dry eye syndrome to sight-threatening corneal ulceration or perforation. Limited information is available about characteristics and treatments of ocular GVHD and its relation to general prognosis.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 140 patients from a tertiary ophthalmological center and confronted it with systemic data from a national bone marrow transplantation database.

Results: Most patients were treated with artificial tears, vitamin A ointment, topical anti-inflammatory agents (mostly cyclosporin and steroid drops), autologous serum eye drops, scleral lenses and punctal silicone plugs. We identified a high proportion of severe ocular manifestations, such as corneal ulceration or perforation (33 patients, 23.6 %), occurring with a median of 39 months (interquartile range (IQR): 16-96) after transplantation. Overall survival did not differ in patients with severe to non-severe ocular GVHD (5-year mortality of 8 % without and 13 % with severe ocular involvement, p = 0.53 for survival curves comparisons). Multivariate analysis revealed that male patients and HLA mismatch allo-HSCT were independently associated with an increased risk of severe ocular manifestations. Moreover, a high proportion of complications occurred after non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) treatments.

Conclusions: Patients with GVHD should therefore undergo close ophthalmological monitoring and they should not, in any case, be treated with local ocular NSAIDs, due to the severity of potential complications.