What may increase your risk for problems from your eye symptoms?

Many conditions, lifestyle choices, medicines, and diseases interfere with your ability to heal or fight infection. You may be at risk for a more serious problem from your symptoms if you have any of the following. Be sure to tell your doctor.

Conditions

• Older than age 60
• Wear contact lenses, which increases the risk for eye infections
• Have another eye condition that increases the risk of vision loss, such as:
  • Glaucoma or macular degeneration
  • Retinal detachment
  • Poor vision or blindness in one eye with injury to the other eye
  • Cataracts
• Premature birth
• A problem or condition present since birth (congenital defect)
• Any eye surgery or procedure
• History of eye infections
• Family history of eye disease, such as glaucoma
• History of ultraviolet (UV) light exposure, such as excessive sunlight exposure or exposure to a welding torch
• Deficiency of thiamine, folic acid, or vitamin B12

Lifestyle choices

• Alcohol abuse or withdrawal
• Drug abuse or withdrawal
• Smoking or other tobacco use
• Travel to underdeveloped countries and tropical regions

Medicines

• Blood-thinning medicines, such as warfarin, heparin, and aspirin
• Corticosteroids, such as prednisone
• Medicines to prevent organ transplant rejection
• Medicines that may affect the eye itself
• Medicines used to treat cancer (chemotherapy)
• Radiation therapy

Diseases

• Active shingles (herpes zoster) on the face
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Atrial fibrillation
• Cancer
• Chronic headaches
• Diabetes
• Giant cell arteritis
• Glaucoma
• Hemophilia
• Herpes infection
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA)
• Kidney disease
• Lupus
• Lyme disease
• Malnutrition or an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia
• Multiple sclerosis
• Myasthenia gravis
• Reiter's syndrome
• Sickle cell disease
• Sjögren's syndrome
• Stroke
• Uveitis
• Wernicke's disease