Off-label medication use

Off-label medication use is a prominent feature in the treatment and management of ophthalmology patients, and uveitic glaucoma is no exception. The United States Food and Drug Administration recommend that physicians use legally-available drugs according to their best knowledge and judgment. The off-label use of non-approved medications requires responsibility on the part of the prescribing physician to be well-informed about the product and to have a scientific rationale (backed by published literature) for its use. In some instances, the use of off-label medications has been adopted as “standard of care," despite lack of FDA approval. The classic example is the pediatric use of nearly everything in ophthalmology, from drops, to sutures, to surgical implants, all of which are used off-label. The same can be said for most anti-inflammatory medications considered as standard of care for uveitis, as very few currently hold explicit approval for use in the indication of uveitis.