Chloramphenicol Eye Drop Side Effects

Like the rest of your body, your eyes are susceptible to infection by micro-organisms, including bacteria. Such infections can affect your vision, making it difficult for you to focus, read or drive. To treat bacterial eye infections, your doctor or optometrist has a number of prescription eye drops at his disposal. Sometimes, she may need to experiment with different antibiotic drops before finding the right one for your particular infection. When an infection is particularly resistant to antibiotics, your doctor may prescribe chloramphenicol or chloroptic eye drops. Despite being effective chloramphenicol eye drops are not for everyone as the drug presents several risks for side effects and complications in some patients.

Common Side Effects

• The most common side effect of chloramphenicol eye drops is blurred vision and burning or itching immediately after using the medication. These sensations typically dissipate within a few minutes and may diminish as your eyes become accustomed to the drug. It is also common to experience redness while using chloramphenicol, either from irritation or a temporary swelling of the blood vessels in your eyes.

Other Side Effects

• Chloramphenicol also has the potential to cause a number of other troublesome or annoying, but not dangerous, side effects. For instance, some patients experience sore throat or fever while using the drops. Some patients notice changes to their skin, such as paleness, rash or an increase in bruising. It is also possible to experience a general feeling of tiredness or weakness while using chloramphenicol.

Drug Interactions

• There are some medications which produce unwanted side effects when used in conjunction with chloramphenicol. Using Ceftazidime, Dicumarol, Cyclosporine, Phenytoin and Tolbutamide increase your risk of developing side effects when combined with chloramphenicol. If you are taking one of these drugs, your doctor is likely to adjust your dosage or select a different medication to treat your other health conditions while you take chloramphenicol. Additionally, the use of over-the-counter eye drops like Visine or Murine should be discontinued while using chloamphenicol drops unless your doctor specifies otherwise.

Risks

• In addition to minor side effects and the risk of interactions, chloramphenicol has the potential to cause serious medical complications. When used for a prolonged period of time, chloroptic drugs sometimes cause aplastic anemia, a serious condition where your bone marrow is unable to produce new blood cells. If left untreated, aplastic anemia is life-threatening. In addition, chloampehnicol sometimes causes fungal infections of the eye.

Considerations

• RxList reports that manufacturer studies show birth defects and fetal death in laboratory animals treated with chloramphenicol, but there have been no studies conducted with pregnant humans. The animal testing results lead some optometrists and physicians to not prescribe chloroptic drops to pregnant women. In addition, chloramphenicol drops are not for use in children under one year of age due to the drug's possible side effects. Because it often causes blurriness, you should not drive or operate heavy machinery immediately after using chloramphenicol drops.