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What Causes Increased Intaocular Pressure After Using Prednisolone Acetate Eye Drops?
Question: In Feb. I had vitrectomy surgery for a macular pucker. During course of observation before surgery the retina dr. put me on a steroid drop for a month because of "oozing" in the eye as shown up in XXXXXXX test. It did no good, IOP pressure was 20 and 23. Since the surgery I've been watched for glaucoma. IOP pressure bounces from 19/20 to 22/24 (it's been in the upper teens to 22 for a long time). Father, Mother, brother all had glaucoma. All my dad's siblings had glaucoma and one aunt was blinded by it. I'm 67, caucas., have controlled high blood pressure, female, had nearsightedness for 50+ years. I had to have cataract surgeries when I was 46 in one eye and at age 53 in second eye.
I've been a glaucome suspect for almost 30 years. Recent cupping ratio was 0.6 in both eyes, and both retina dr. and regular opth. dr saw a splinter hemorrhage in surgical eye. Visual field test looked ok. My regular eye dr. put me on one Timolol 0.5% drop in both eyes last week because he says he believes I now have active glaucoma in the early stages. I've been told I have glaucoma before but subsequent visits ruled it out. I've heard this so long it's now difficult to believe "I've crossed over". I was wondering if the Prednisolone Acetate drops I used for 30 days might have triggered the glaucoma or it was there all along. What do you think about the diagnosis? With a normal visual field test, I guess I'm not convinced I have glaucoma and am afraid my regular dr. is being too aggressive. I've had 12 scheduled eye care visits-at the drs. request-over the course of 9 months. It looks like something about glaucoma might have come up while they were looking at the macular pucker. Could the surgery have triggered it? Thank you.
I've been a glaucome suspect for almost 30 years. Recent cupping ratio was 0.6 in both eyes, and both retina dr. and regular opth. dr saw a splinter hemorrhage in surgical eye. Visual field test looked ok. My regular eye dr. put me on one Timolol 0.5% drop in both eyes last week because he says he believes I now have active glaucoma in the early stages. I've been told I have glaucoma before but subsequent visits ruled it out. I've heard this so long it's now difficult to believe "I've crossed over". I was wondering if the Prednisolone Acetate drops I used for 30 days might have triggered the glaucoma or it was there all along. What do you think about the diagnosis? With a normal visual field test, I guess I'm not convinced I have glaucoma and am afraid my regular dr. is being too aggressive. I've had 12 scheduled eye care visits-at the drs. request-over the course of 9 months. It looks like something about glaucoma might have come up while they were looking at the macular pucker. Could the surgery have triggered it? Thank you.
Brief Answer:
Surgery can cause raise of intraocular pressure.
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to Health care Magic
I am Dr. Dadapeer K, an ophthalmologist and I answer health problems related to eye.
It seems from the history that you are having increased intaocular pressure following use of prednisolone acetate eye drops for 30 days and vitrectomy surgery for macular pucker.
Both prednisolone acetate eye drops and surgery in the form of vitrectomy are known to cause increase in the intraocular pressure or glaucoma. Hence it is possible that use of prednisolone acetate eye drops or surgery have triggered increase in the intraocular pressure.
Since you have family history of glaucoma, the increased intraocular pressure needs to be treated to prevent the development of glaucoma. Since the visual field examination is normal this can be called as ocular hypertension.
Studies have prove that the treatment has to be treated and it is beneficial to do so in ocular hypertension. This is very important in your case as you are also having a positive family history.
Hence you need to continue the use of timolol 0.5% as advised by your regular doctor. You need to continue use of timolol 0.5% eye drops till the intraocualr pressure comes to normal range which we normally take as 15-16 mm of hg.
Hope I have answered your question and the information is helpful to you.
Thank you
With regards
Surgery can cause raise of intraocular pressure.
Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to Health care Magic
I am Dr. Dadapeer K, an ophthalmologist and I answer health problems related to eye.
It seems from the history that you are having increased intaocular pressure following use of prednisolone acetate eye drops for 30 days and vitrectomy surgery for macular pucker.
Both prednisolone acetate eye drops and surgery in the form of vitrectomy are known to cause increase in the intraocular pressure or glaucoma. Hence it is possible that use of prednisolone acetate eye drops or surgery have triggered increase in the intraocular pressure.
Since you have family history of glaucoma, the increased intraocular pressure needs to be treated to prevent the development of glaucoma. Since the visual field examination is normal this can be called as ocular hypertension.
Studies have prove that the treatment has to be treated and it is beneficial to do so in ocular hypertension. This is very important in your case as you are also having a positive family history.
Hence you need to continue the use of timolol 0.5% as advised by your regular doctor. You need to continue use of timolol 0.5% eye drops till the intraocualr pressure comes to normal range which we normally take as 15-16 mm of hg.
Hope I have answered your question and the information is helpful to you.
Thank you
With regards
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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