Pilocarpine and retinal detachment

Today, I saw an entry in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. This is a report published by Dr. Hasenin Al-khersan and colleagues. The article describes two patients who had retinal detachments after use of pilocarpine 1.25% eye drops, which were started for presbyopia. Presbyopia, in basic terms, is the medical term for “needing reading glasses.” One of the two patients had a retinal detachment in both eyes.

Using reading glasses can be difficulty and annoying, for sure. Retinal detachments can cause permanent blindness.