Hyperglycemic Effects of a Periocular Dexamethasone Injection in Diabetic Patients after Vitreoretinal Surgery

Key words: 
• Dexamethasone /
• Periocular injection /
• Vitreoretinal surgery /
• Diabetes mellitus /
• Blood glucose

Abstract: Objective To examine the hyperglycemic effects of periocular dexamethasone injection in type 2 diabetic patients after vitreoretinal surgery (VRS).Methods This was a retrospective non-randomized controlled trial.Twenty consecutive hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes and ocular inflammatory reaction after VRS were enrolled in this study.Ten patients received 2.5 mg dexamethasone and 10 patients received 5 mg dexamethasone.Fourteen consecutive type 2 diabetic patients without ocular inflammatory reaction after VRS were used as control group.We measured fasting blood glucose (FBG) and at 2 h after each meal (post prandial glucose,PBG; 09:00,13:00,and 19:00 h) after periocular dexamethasone injection.Differences among three groups were determined by q tests.Results The PBG levels in both dexamethasone-treated groups started to increase within 5 h after injection (i.e.,PBG at 13:00 h),and were significantly increased at 19:00 h after injection (P＜0.05).BG levels were almost 2-fold higher than at baseline and compared with the control group.The BG values declined gradually by 24 h to 48 h after injection.There were no differences in BG levels between the two dexamethasone-treated groups (P＞0.05),except for PBG at 19:00 h on day 2 after injection (P＜0.05).Conclusion Periocular dexamethasone injection can cause transient hyperglycemia in diabetic patients after VRS.BG monitoring should be performed following such injection.