Real-World Study on Patient Satisfaction and Tolerability After Switching to Preservative-Free Latanoprost
Release time：2021-06-21 02:16:00
Introduction
Glaucoma is a chronic disorder that requires long-term treatment. In common with other insidious diseases such as hypertension or type-2 diabetes, obtaining patient compliance and long-term adherence with treatment is a key factor in achieving a good clinical outcome.
Whilst efficacy is a rewarding goal for both the patient and physician, many factors can impact the patient’s compliance and treatment regime. Among these factors, which include convenience, comfort and ease of use, the tolerability of the medication is a main issue.1 According to the European Glaucoma Society “A patient who complains about side effects is usually not adherent to therapy”.2 The basic problem with glaucoma patients is that in most cases they do not perceive visual disturbances and, therefore, do not feel impaired in their daily life. However, glaucoma therapy leads to far-reaching changes on the ocular surface, which not only leads to inflammatory changes on the cellular level, but also subjectively cause discomfort for the patients, limiting their quality of life.3–7 Ocular surface toxicity is frequently associated with not only the active ingredient in the eye drops, but also with the preservative contained in the formulation, which prevents bacterial growth.8
Topically applied latanoprost has become the first line treatment for glaucoma and ocular hypertension.9 Not only is it effective and well tolerated, but patients adhere to their treatment significantly more easily with latanoprost than with bimatoprost, travoprost or timolol.10–13 The advent of a patented topical latanoprost formulation without preservative offered a higher tolerability of prostaglandin glaucoma medication, with relatively fewer symptoms of ocular surface disease that could compromise adherence to treatment.14–19
Given the importance of long-term adherence to treatment in glaucoma and the impact of tolerability upon it, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the patient’s experience of topical preservative-free (PF) glaucoma medications. The present study was conceived to determine the degree of satisfaction among treatment-naïve patients or those who had recently switched to PF latanoprost in single-use dose units (PFL, Monoprost®, Laboratoires Théa, France)
References:
https://www.dovepress.com/real-world-study-on-patient-satisfaction-and-tolerability-after-switch-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-OPTH