Comparison between Betamethasone, Fluorometholone and Loteprednol Etabonate on intraocular pressure in patients after keratorefractive surgery

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the ocular hypertensive effect of the commercially available Betamethasone, Fluorometholone in Iran and Loteprednol Etabonate in patients undergoing keratorefractive surgery. METHODS: In this prospective randomized clinical trial, 300 eyes of 150 patients were included, and patients were randomly assigned to 3 groups and used one of the 3 steroid drops (Betamethasone 0.1%, Fluorometholone 0.1%, and Loteprednol Etabonate 0.5%) after myopic photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured 2, 4, and 6 weeks post-surgery. Twenty-two mmHg was set as the threshold IOP for starting anti-glaucoma medication and tapering steroid drops. RESULTS: Of 300 eyes from 150 patients over the first 6 postoperative weeks, 2 eyes in Fluorometholone group (2%), 12 eyes in Betamethasone group (12%), and 16 eyes in Loteprednol group (16%) had IOP equal or more than 22 mmHg. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed that the rise in IOP was significantly different between groups in the 2nd and 4th (P ≤ 0.001) postoperative weeks but not at 6th week (P = 0.230). An IOP rise equal or more than 10 mmHg was detected in 13 and 15 eyes in Betamethasone and Loteprednol groups, respectively. None of the eyes in Fluorometholone group had such an IOP rise. CONCLUSIONS: Loteprednol and Fluorometholone were associated with the most and least increase in IOP, respectively. The highest pressures were detected 4 weeks after surgery in the Betamethasone and Loteprednol groups and 6 weeks after surgery in the Fluorometholone group. Fluorometholone was the safest among the three examined steroid drops in terms of IOP rise.