Successful treatment with infliximab after adalimumab failure in pediatric noninfectious uveitis

To describe the use of infliximab after adalimumab failure in the treatment of pediatric noninfectious uveitis.

A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records of pediatric patients with noninfectious uveitis treated with infliximab for a minimum of 6 months after previously failing to achieve steroid-free remission using adalimumab at the University of Texas Medical School and Children's Medical Center between September 2015 and March 2018. Rates of achieving disease activity quiescence and steroid-free remission as well as incidence of adverse events were calculated.

A total of 13 patients with noninfectious uveitis refractory to treatment with adalimumab met inclusion criteria. Three (23%) had anterior uveitis, 4 (31%) had pars planitis, and 6 (46%) had panuveitis. Eleven (85%) patients had preexisting ocular comorbidities. Of these, 4 (31%) had retinal vasculitis, and 1 (7.7%) had cystoid macular edema. There was a 100% response rate to treatment with infliximab following failure to achieve disease quiescence on adalimumab. At mean follow-up time of 21 months (range, 8-31) from initiation of infliximab, there was a reduction in steroid dependence from 100% to 15% after transitioning from adalimumab to infliximab (P < 0.001). Nine patients (69%) had achieved steroid-free remission on infliximab therapy. The mean time to steroid-free remission was 8.7 months.

In our study cohort, infliximab was used successfully in all cases of recalcitrant pediatric noninfectious uveitis that previously failed adalimumab therapy.