Fungal corneal ulcers tend to have very poor outcomes with commonly used treatments. There has only been a single randomized trial of anti-fungal therapy for mycotic keratitis, and no new ocular anti-fungal medications have been approved by the FDA since the 1960s. The triazole voriconazole has recently become the treatment of choice for systemic fungal infections such as pulmonary aspergillosis. The use of topical ophthalmic preparations of voriconazole has been described in numerous case reports, however there has been no systematic attempt to determine whether it is more or less clinically effective than natamycin. Additionally, there have been many case reports of the use of oral voriconazole in the treatment of fungal corneal ulcers, however there has been no systematic attempt to determine if it improves outcomes in severe ulcers.~This study is a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial to determine if the use natamycin or voriconazole results in better outcomes for fungal corneal ulcers. 368 fungal corneal ulcers with baseline visual acuity between 6/12 (20/40, logMAR 0.3) and 6/120 (20/400, logMAR 1.3) presenting to the Aravind Eye Hospitals and the UCSF Proctor Foundation will be randomized to receive either topical natamycin or topical voriconazole. The primary outcome is best spectacle-corrected logMAR visual acuity three months after enrollment, using best spectacle-corrected enrollment visual acuity as a co-variate.
The purpose of this study is to determine if natamycin or voriconazole results in better visual outcomes in fungal corneal ulcers, especially visual acuity.