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Corneal staining after treatment with topical tetracycline
Ruth Lapid-Gortzak1, Carla P Nieuwendaal, Allan R Slomovic
1Department of Ophthalmology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. eyelapid@yahoo.com
Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to report a case of corneal staining after treatment with topical tetracycline.
Methods:
A patient with crystalline keratopathy caused by Streptococcus viridans after corneal transplantation was treated topically with tetracycline eye drops, based on results of bacterial sensitivity testing. After 3 weeks of intensive treatment, the donor cornea was stained with a brownish hue, which was ascribed to the tetracycline drops.
Results:
One patient with crystalline keratopathy developed corneal staining after intensive treatment with topical tetracycline eye drops. After a year of follow-up, the staining of the cornea had not changed significantly.
Conclusion:
Hourly topical tetracycline eye drops may induce corneal pigmentation. To our knowledge, this is the first published case report of corneal staining caused by tetracycline eye drops.
