Combination therapy for dendritic keratitis with human leucocyte interferon and trifluorothymidine.

Herpes keratitis is still considered to be one of the most serious diseases of the outer eye. With the advent of virostatics' in 1962 there has been progressive improvement in the treatment of dendritic keratitis. At present interferon treatment is at the centre of interest. It was discovered in 1957, but as it was very difficult to produce in large quantities experiments23 were limited. Studies with interferon or interferon inducers alone4' in controlling dendritic keratitis gave disappointing results. In combination with virostatics4"0 interferon was reported to be more effective than virostatics alone. We have treated patients with dendritic keratitis and superficial epithelial lesions with interferon or placebo in combination with trifluorothymidine in a double-masked randomised trial.