Curcumin has been successfully applied to treat inflammatory conditions in experimental research and in clinical trials. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the efficacy of an adjunctive-to-traditional treatment with Norflo
tablets (
curcumin-
phosphatidylcholine complex; Meriva) administered twice a day in recurrent
anterior uveitis of different etiologies. The study group consisted of 106 patients who completed a 12-month follow-up therapeutic period. We divided the patients into three main groups of different
uveitis origin: group 1 (autoimmune
uveitis), group 2 (herpetic
uveitis), and group 3 (different etiologies of
uveitis). The primary end point of our work was the evaluation of relapse frequency in all treated patients, before and after Norflo treatment, followed by the number of relapses in the three etiological groups. Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a P < 0.001 in all groups. The secondary end points were the evaluation of relapse severity and of the overall quality of life. The results showed that Norflo was well tolerated and could reduce eye discomfort symptoms and signs after a few weeks of treatment in more than 80% of patients. In conclusion, our study is the first to report the potential therapeutic role of
curcumin and its efficacy in eye relapsing diseases, such as
anterior uveitis, and points out other promising
curcumin-related benefits in eye inflammatory and degenerative conditions, such as
dry eye,
maculopathy,
glaucoma, and
diabetic retinopathy.