Administration of oral fluoroquinolone and the risk of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: A nationwide population-based study in Korea

PURPOSE: To investigate the association between oral fluoroquinolones (FQ) and the risk of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) using a nationwide population-based study in Korea, designed to control for time-related bias. METHODS: As a nested case-control study within a cohort, the KNHIS-NSC 2002–2013 (Korean National Health Insurance Service National Sample Cohort) data used for the investigation. The subjects who visited an ophthalmologist were included in a cohort. Subjects with infectious ocular diseases, severe ocular trauma, and congenital diseases were excluded. Within the cohort, subjects who underwent surgery for RRD were defined as cases, and controls were matched by age group, sex, and cohort entry date using an incidence density sampling method. After investigating the exposure to oral FQ, the odds ratio was calculated by the FQ exposure rate of both groups and adjusted by the confounding factors of demography, health service utilization, and comorbidities. RESULTS: A total of 1,151 subjects in the case group and 11,470 subjects in the control group were included. There were intergroup differences in household income, numbers of ophthalmologic visits and drug prescriptions, events of intraocular surgeries, and prevalence of diabetes and degenerative myopia (all P’s<0.05). The crude odds ratio of the total group was 1.06 (P = 0.53, 95% CI 0.88–1.28), and the odds ratio adjusted for all pre-defined confounders was 1.00 (P = 0.99, 95% CI 0.81–1.24). The crude and adjusted odds ratios were not showed statistical significance (all P’s>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: By the nested case-control design, this study showed that oral administration of FQ was not associated with the increased risk of development of RRD.