With the advent of monsoon season, the eye related infections rise significantly but use of steroid containing eye drops without proper medical advice may not only worsen the disease but can even lead to complete blindness, informed Dr Radhika Tandon, MD, Ophthalmology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
People often use these drops on the advice of pharmacists or chemists for bacterial and viral infections of eyes may lead to serious problems like ulcers or glaucoma which may further result in complete loss of vision.
“Pharmacists often give you steroid drops as they are anti-inflammatory. After using them, a patient’s symptoms may reduce quickly initially but it makes them prone to eye ulcers and more serious infections like glaucoma”, said Tandon.
She informed that AIIMS is generally afloat with patients with side effects of steroid drops in the monsoon season but surprisingly none of such patients has visited the department this year yet.
“We have not yet seen any such case this year but last year I remember a case was there where a patient coming from a rural area had developed conjunctivitis. He went to a pharmacist who gave him a steroid drop. After sometime, he developed very severe pain, whiteness and decrease in vision. On treatment, it was found that there were pus pockets in his cornea. The case had gone really bad and he had to undergo an emergency corneal transplant to get rid of the infection” she said.
In some cases, there is a severe damage to the optic nerve which cannot be reversed, said the doctor. According to Dr Tandon, the steroid drops are generally prescribed by an ophthalmologist in very rare cases such as “corneal scarring” or “corneal injury” and are not to be used without prescription of a registered medical practitioner. Ironically such drops can be easily purchased from various pharmacies without prescription.
As per the eye specialist, during monsoons, eye infections rise by 15 to 20 per cent, however, the use of steroid drops should be avoided without medical recommendation and instead eye lubricants can be used to maintain moisture in eyes.