tafluprost: clinical use

Prescribing considerations

• Licensed for adults; safety and efficacy below 18 years have not been established.
• Use cautiously in renal or hepatic impairment because these groups have not been studied.
• Counsel about potentially permanent iris pigmentation, eyelash changes and periocular skin darkening.
• Consider macular-oedema risk in aphakia, pseudophakia with a torn posterior capsule or anterior-chamber lens, and other recognised risk factors.
• Use caution with previous or active iritis or uveitis and in severe asthma.
• Experience is absent or limited in several glaucoma subtypes, including angle-closure, narrow-angle, neovascular and congenital glaucoma.

Contraindications and cautions

• Hypersensitivity to tafluprost or any excipient.

Monitoring

• Intraocular pressure and adherence or administration technique
• Optic-nerve appearance and visual fields as clinically appropriate
• Changes in iris colour, eyelashes and periocular skin
• New inflammation, macular oedema or deterioration in visual acuity
• Respiratory symptoms in patients with asthma

Clinical pharmacology

Tafluprost is a fluorinated prostaglandin F2α analogue and prodrug. Corneal hydrolysis produces the active FP-receptor agonist tafluprost acid, increasing uveoscleral aqueous-humour outflow. Systemic exposure after ocular administration is low, and cytochrome P450 enzymes are not involved in tafluprost-acid metabolism.

Formulation and product differences

• The selected product is a preservative-free multidose bottle.
• A preservative-free single-dose presentation also exists, but handling and storage instructions differ between presentations.
• The selected solution contains phosphate; corneal calcification has very rarely been reported with phosphate-containing drops in patients with substantial corneal damage.

Eye drops

Route: Ophthalmic

Strengths: 15 micrograms/mL