Eye pain after stopping prednisolone eye drops

[BigLannie]

I had cataract surgery August 11th of this year. I was prescribed prednisolone eye drops 3 times a day for a month then twice a day for another month and once a day for a month. Everytime I stop I get severe eye pain and my doctor tells me to go back on the drops for another week and then stop. It has been a while now since my surgery, today I stopped the drops after a week and woke up with severe eye pain and senistivity to light. How do I get off these drops and what is causing my eye pain each time I stop the drops?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear BigLannie,

Prednisolone eye drops are used to reduce inflammation inside the eye.  Sometimes, if the drops are discontinued suddenly, one can experience rebound inflammation.  You have not just stopped the drops but reduced them. I would recommend asking your eyeMD whether a slower taper might be indicated.  It is important for your eyeMD to assess your eye when you complain of symptoms.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[berrywoo]

Maybe the tapering should be more gradual. You should talk w/ your doctor about this. Instead of stopping the prednisolone acetate drops suddenly after daily use, maybe you could talk w/ your doc. about taking them every other day for a week, then every two days for a week, etc. until you've completely stopped. After prolonged use of any sort of steriod it takes the body a while to readjust, so this maybe the reason for your pain, or you may have developed chronic inflammation, such as uveitis.