The Effect of Topical Corticosteroids on the Intraocular Pressure

ABSTRACT

The ability of topical corticosteroids to induce an increase in intraocular pressure(IOP) limits the usefullness in ocular disease. To evaluate of the effects of different types of corticosteroids on the IOP, we applied two kinds of corticosteroics to 103 outpatients without intraocular disease. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 67 patients were treated with 0.12% prednisolone. The second group consisted of 36 patients were treated with 0.1% fluorometholone. In the first group, following six weeks of topical application, patients demonstrated significant increase in the IOP (p0.05). In the first group, 72 of 134 eyes(54%) demonstrated increase in the rop. In the second group, 34 of 72 eyes (47%) demonstrated increase in the IOP. The IOP response failed to correlate significantly with sex, age, baseline IOP, refractive error and cup/disc ratio in two different corticosteroids (p>0.05). These findings do emphasize the need to measure the IOP of all patients who undergoing topical steroids application for an extended period.