Oral doxycycline reduces pterygium lesions; results from a double blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial.

Abstract

PurposeTo determine whether oral doxycycline treatment reduces pterygium lesions.DesignDouble blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial.Participants98 adult patients with primary pterygium.MethodsPatients were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg oral doxycycline twice a day (49 subjects), or placebo (49 subjects), for 30 days. Photographs of the lesion were taken at the time of recruitment and at the end of the treatment. Follow-up sessions were performed 6 and 12 months post-treatment. Statistical analyses for both continuous and categorical variables were applied. p values of less than 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance.Main outcome measuresThe primary endpoint was the change in lesion size after 30 days of treatment.ResultsThe primary endpoint was not met for the whole population but subgroup analysis showed that doxycycline was effective in patients of Caucasian origin while other ethnicities, mostly Hispanic, did not respond to the treatment. Moreover, there was a correlation between age and better response (p = 0.003). Adverse events were uncommon, mild, and in agreement with previous reports on short doxycycline treatments.ConclusionsOral doxycycline was superior to placebo for the treatment of primary pterygia in older Caucasian patients. These findings support the use of doxycycline for pterygium treatment in particular populations.Trial registrationEuropean Union Clinical Trials Register EudraCT 2008-007178-39.