After using hormonal eye drops for two years, a 60-year-old woman developed glaucoma

Ms. Huang, 60, went to the hospital for a checkup on September 14 because of blurred vision, and was diagnosed with hormone-induced glaucoma. The doctor found that Ms. Huang had been using a special eye drop containing hormones for a long time because of itchy eyes, which led to her glaucoma.

Ms. Huang, who came to Wuhan from her hometown Hong'an, had been seeing things more and more blurry recently, so she came to the Wuhan University Aier Eye Hospital accompanied by her son. After examination, Ms. Huang's intraocular pressure in both eyes was as high as 40 mmHg (normal intraocular pressure is 10-21 mmHg), her naked eye vision dropped to 0.3, and her visual field was partially defective. She was diagnosed with steroid-induced glaucoma and currently needs to control intraocular pressure as soon as possible, and even need surgery if necessary.

Wu Zuohong, director of the hospital's glaucoma department, inquired carefully and learned that Ms. Huang's eyes began to itch when she was in her hometown two years ago. She went to the local hospital and was told that it was allergic conjunctivitis. After using eye drops for a few days, the itching stopped. Later, she thought it was troublesome to go to the hospital to buy medicine, so she asked her son to buy the same eye drops online. She used them whenever her eyes felt uncomfortable, and she has used 6 bottles on and off in the past two years. Ms. Huang took out her "magic medicine" from her pocket while talking.

"This is the culprit of your glaucoma. This eye drops contains hormone ingredients. Long-term use can easily lead to hormonal glaucoma." Director Wu Zuohong introduced that long-term use of such eye drops will cause increased intraocular pressure. There may be no obvious symptoms in the early stages, but if the intraocular pressure continues to rise, visual field defects and even optic nerve atrophy may occur, causing irreversible damage.

Director Wu Zuohong said that like Ms. Huang, many citizens usually choose to buy eye drops themselves. In this regard, he reminded that when buying eye drops, you should pay attention to the ingredient list. If it is hormone eye drops, you must follow the doctor's advice when using it.

How can we tell which eye drops contain hormones? Director Wu Zuohong said that eye drops with the word "song" or "long" in their main ingredients are mostly hormone eye drops, such as dexamethasone, cortisone, betamethasone, prednisolone, flumethasone, etc. He reminded that middle-aged and elderly people over 40 years old have certain high-risk factors for eye diseases and should have regular eye examinations every year, especially for vision, fundus, and intraocular pressure. If you feel unwell, you need to go to the hospital in time and never take medicine on your own.