Central serous chorioretinopathy secondary to drugs: a real-world pharmacovigilance study of the FDA adverse event reporting system (FAERS).

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the reporting associations between Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) and many available drugs using FAERS.

Research design and methods: FAERS reports from 2004 to 2023 were included in the study. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) was used to identify CSCR cases. Reporting odds ratios (RORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the reporting associations between available drugs and CSCR were calculated. A reporting association was considered statistically significant when the lower limit of the 95% CI was > 1.0.

Results: There were 1002 reports of 110 drugs with suspected drug-associated CSCR based on the 'primary suspects' role code in the FAERS database found to have statistically significant signals. Among the top 20 ROR drugs, the most frequently reported drugs were dermatological drugs (ATC:D, 210 cases, 64.41%), followed by antitumor agents and immunological agents (ATC:L,77 cases, 23.62%), Systemic Hormonal Preparations, Excl. Sex hormones and Insulins (ATC:H, 19 cases, 5.80%) and sensory organ drugs (ATC:S, 9 cases, 2.76%). The top 3 drugs associated with CSCR were Prednisolone (144 cases, 44.17%), Fluticasone (29 cases, 8.90%), and Methylprednisolone (27 cases, 8.28%).

Conclusions: This is the first real-world study using FAERS database to investigate drug-induced CSCR. Clinicians and pharmacist must keep in mind CSCR is a serious ocular complication associated with glucocorticoids, tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor, and other drugs that can cause CSCR.