Sir,

Compliance with treatment was not formally recorded in this study but failure to take the treatment prescribed is very unusual as scleritis is such a painful and distressing condition.

Compliance was recorded in the ‘Double Blind Trial of the Treatment of Episcleritis-Scleritis with Oxyphenbutazone or Prednisolone’ Br J Ophthalmol: 1966; 50: 463–481. In this trial only six of 59 patients failed to complete the full course of treatment for reasons other than drug reactions but, unfortunately, smoking was not included as a risk factor in this trial. However, as the treatment regimes are similar to those used in the present paper the documented poor compliance of smokers would not have altered the observation that smoking/delays/the response to treatment.