Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) is a serious side effect of steroid medication that causes a buildup of fluid underneath the retina. This can lead to retinal detachment and vision loss.
There are four important ocular side effects of corticosteroids: steroid-induced glaucoma, cataract formation, delayed wound healing, and increased susceptibility to infection.
Conclusion: Long-term corticosteroid therapy can be complicated by severe, chronic and recurrent CSCR and occasionally peripheral exudative retinal detachment. This may result in subretinal fibrosis and permanent loss of vision.
Most short-term prednisone side effects, like headaches, nausea, and weight gain, go away once the dose is lowered or the steroid is stopped altogether. Other potential side effects—like vision problems and osteoporosis —may be permanent.
Thus, glucocorticoid-induced muscle wasting can be reversed by increasing physical activity in patients taking a low to moderate dose of prednisone.
A full recovery can take a week to several months. Contact your doctor if you experience prednisone withdrawal symptoms as you are tapering off the drug.
In the majority of cases, steroid-induced acute rise of IOP typically normalizes within days of stopping the steroid and chronic forms take 1 to 4 weeks. In rare cases, IOP remains elevated, for which antiglaucoma medications or surgery may become necessary.
Posterior subcapsular: This type of cataract may be caused by high doses of prednisone, extreme farsightedness, and retinitis pigmentosa. It forms at the back of the lens and tends to develop over months, rather than years.
Fluid retention is one of prednisone's most famous side effects. “'Moon face' is common, which is swelling in the face that can occur after you've been on steroids for a long time,” Dr. Ford notes. “You can also get swelling in the legs and midsection.”
Corticosteroids — like prednisone — can have serious long-term side effects. This is especially true when someone takes them for a long time or at a higher dose. Examples of corticosteroids side effects include weight gain, osteoporosis, eye problems, and increased infection risk.
Side effects include changes in color perception, blurred vision, eye pain and photophobia. Fortunately, side effects rarely occur (although they are more common among patients that take higher doses) and resolve once the patient stops taking the drug.
How Long Will Withdrawal Symptoms Last? It's normal to feel some mild symptoms for about a week or two as you taper off prednisone. Don't take any OTC pain medicine or prescription drugs without asking your doctor first. Psychological withdrawal symptoms could last for 2 to 8 weeks.
This steroid response can occur in a few weeks, or in as little as a few days in highly sensitive people. If unrecognized, the steroid response can develop into steroid-induced glaucoma and cause permanent optic nerve damage.
Steroids have such an overall effect on the immune system that for each person, there is a little bit of a variety of an affect that we see. We don't see any direct effects of prednisone to both wet and dry macular degeneration, but prednisone can cause a different condition that can affect your macula.
Elevated IOP can be caused by many things, even with concurrent steroid use. The steroid-induced rises in IOP are reversible on discontinuation.
Steroid eye drops may cause glaucoma (increased pressure inside the eye) or posterior subcapsular cataracts (a rare type of cataract) if used too long. Slow or delayed healing may also occur while you are using this medicine after cataract surgery.
The prevailing view regarding the mechanism of steroid cataract formation holds that glucocorticoids are covalently bound to lens proteins resulting in destabilization of the protein structure allowing further modification (i.e. oxidation) leading to cataract.
Treatment of choice is lens extraction with or without intraocular lens (IOL).
The mean increase in IOP over the 42-day period was 4.1 and 9 mmHg for the loteprednol etabonate group and prednisolone acetate groups, respectively.
This depends on your health problem or condition. You may only need a short course of prednisolone for up to 1 week. You may need to take it for longer, even for many years or the rest of your life.
Serious side effects associated with higher doses and long-term use (greater than 1 month) are impaired wound healing, decreased growth (in children), decreased muscle production, fat deposits, stomach ulcers or bleeding, vision problems, higher risk for infection, and in rare cases life-threatening allergic reactions.
Because prednisone suppresses the body's immune system, it can also increase the risk of infection. Therefore, some precautions need to be taken. Before taking prednisone, talk to your healthcare provider about the following: If you have a history of allergies to prednisone or other steroid drugs.