Expansion of contracted visual fields following treatment with pentoxifylline in two patients with coexistent...

Pentoxifylline, a hemorheologic drug reputed to reduce blood viscosity, can be used to improve the microcirculation in peripheral vascular disease. The authors report on 2 patients who were being followed up for possible glaucoma and whose visual field constriction became worse at about the same time as their peripheral vascular symptoms began to increase in severity. Following initiation of treatment with oral pentoxifylline, their peripheral vascular complaints decreased and their visual fields gradually expanded over the next several months. This dual effect seemed more than a coincidence. It may in fact indicate that the same mechanism said to aggravate the peripheral ischemia (ie, increased blood viscosity) in patients with peripheral vascular disease may also have been the basis for the visual field contraction in these 2 patients, possibly by producing retinal ischemia. The reversal of the contracted visual fields would then seem to be due to the ameliorative effect of the pentoxifylline treatment on the blood viscosity.