Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for refractory ocular cicatricial pemphigoid: case report.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To report the favorable outcome of a patient with severe ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, which was refractory to conventional treatment but recovered after intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. METHODS: A case report. RESULTS: Conventional therapy failed to control the ocular symptoms of this patient, which are typical of the disease. However, the patient improved remarkably in response to pulsed intravenous human immunoglobulin therapy. CONCLUSIONS: We achieved stabilization of the disease around the seventh intravenous immunoglobulin cycle, thus contributing to satisfactory postoperative evolution after limbal allograft transplantation and facilitating the performance of intraocular surgical procedures, such as phacoemulsification, with improvement in best-corrected visual acuity.