What medicines are used for Uveitis?

Even though, there is sometimes no permanent cure for uveitis, each attack can be treated with appropriate medications. The treatment will depend on the cause, severity and location of the inflammation. The treatment involves eye-drops, injections around the eye or oral medicines.

Most of the commonly prescribed eye drops contain some form of steroid and drops that cause dilatation of the pupil with temporary paralysis of the sphincter muscles to relieve pain. The latter causes some difficulty in near vision and may increase glare in bright light. We advise the use of dark glasses while going out in daylight.

Injection of periocular steroid around the eye is necessary in some cases. Most commonly a depot steroid injection is used, which causes a slow release of the drug in the eye. Such an injection can be effective for 3-4 weeks.

Oral drugs are needed when the inflammation is extensive or severe. These include oral steroids like prednisolone (wysolone*) and immunosuppressive drugs. 

Immunosuppressive drugs that are commonly used include azathioprine (Imuran*/Azoran*), cyclophosphamide (Endoxan*/Cytoxan*), methotrexate and cyclosporine (Sandimmune*/Immunosporin*). All these drugs have some side effects but these are often not serious and reversible when withdrawn.

We advise you to take medicines as per our instructions. Do not start or stop medication without your doctor’s advice.