Oculoplastics

Abstract

Compared to the rest of ophthalmology, there are not as many clinical trials in the field of oculoplastics. However, a number well-designed significant trials looking at treatment modalities and disease course in Graves' ophthalmopathy have been performed and will be the focus of this chapter. The trials here were selected for their study design, with preference given to randomized controlled trials, for sample size, and for significance of their conclusions. This is only a small sampling of publications in the field. For example, several studies have been done to evaluate the efficacy of orbital radiation therapy in treating Graves' ophthalmopathy, but they have yielded disparate results. This may be due to study design or sample size, or the self-limited nature of the active phase of the disease, which inherently makes critical assessment of medical interventions difficult. Assessment of treatment response is also difficult in the absence of an objective reproducible scoring system of disease activity/severity, and a universally accepted method of scoring severity of Graves' ophthalmopathy does not exist. These are all issues that the reader should remain aware of while reading this chapter.