title: Topical anesthetic eye drops abuse: are we aware of the danger?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the clinical results of topical anesthetic drug (TAD) abuse and to evaluate the results in terms of preventive medicine and public health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients who had been followed in a cornea unit between March 2009 and November 2011 for TAD abuse keratopathy were included in the study. The demographics, duration of TAD use, symptoms, ocular findings, treatment modalities, visual acuities, complications and accompanying psychiatric problems data were obtained from medical records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve eyes of 8 patients (3 females and 5 males) were evaluated retrospectively. One of the patients was provided the drug with a primary care pratitioner's prescription and for the other 7 patients, it was available from pharmacies without prescription. According to their clinical history, 4 patients were suffering from exposure to welding flash with a corneal foreign body, 2 from lagophthalmus-related keratopathy, 1 from traumatic corneal abrasion, and 1 from exposure to silica dust at work. The mean duration of TAD usage was 14.8 ± 7.78 days. Slit-lamp examination revealed corneal epithelial defect in all eyes, stromal opacity in 11 eyes and ring-shaped infiltrates in 8 eyes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Uncontrolled overuse of TAD can lead to serious ocular morbidities. Similarity of the clinical signs of this abuse to those of infectious keratitis together with the fact practitioners and managers to take measures to prevent the ready supply of these drugs from pharmacies and to raise public awareness with education programs.
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. elif.erdem.1979@gmail.com
authors: Elif
authors: E
authors: Erdem
authors: Ismail Hakki
authors: IH
authors: Undar
authors: Ebru
authors: E
authors: Esen
authors: Kemal
authors: K
authors: Yar
authors: Meltem
authors: M
authors: Yagmur
authors: Reha
authors: R
authors: Ersoz
mesh_terms: D000287:Administration, Topical; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007766:Lacrimal Apparatus Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology; D020795:Photophobia / Q000209:etiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions