Background: Based on the adverse event reporting system, the authors observed unique occupational and pharmacological trends in central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC); despite being a common condition in the region, there are no large epidemiological studies. Objective: To describe the clinical profile, risk factors and co-medications of CSC in a multispecialty hospital in UAE. Methods: Hospital based retrospective, observational study in which all the confirmed cases of CSC (272) seen between 2010 and 2019 were included. Supplementary data was collected on follow up visits or through telephonic calls. Results: The male: female ratio was 17:1; low socio-economic status was (155; 73.45%), and occupations such as drivers (61; 28.9%) and outdoor laborers (59; 27.96%) were the most commonly affected. The majority (78.05%; 185) were single expatriates. Financial worries (105; 50.72%) constituted the leading cause of stress. The usage of corticosteroids (83; 30.51%), nasal decongestants (14.70%) or both (17; 6.25%) within one year was common; mostly (82; 30.14%) for rhinitis/respiratory states, though grossly under-recognized. Muscle relaxants and psychotropic medications were the other major medications used by 24 (8.82%) and 25 (9.19%) cases prior to CSC. Seven of 15 women had at least one condition that alters the endocrinal milieu: Pregnancy (3), recent child birth (1), erratic oral contraceptive intake (1), menopause with liver dysfunction (1), hormone replacement therapy for menopause and endometriosis (1), ovarian cyst and infertility (1) hypothyroidism (3), and Cushing syndrome (1). Chronic/ recurrent forms were seen in 31.08%. There were too few glaucoma patients despite both CSC and glaucoma being common among our patients. Conclusions: CSC in Al-Ain predominantly affected males with a specific occupational predisposition. Emotional distress, financial worries, allergic disorders, and endocrinal disorders (among females) were common. Adverse drug events were under-reported compared to the usage of steroid or decongestant users. Suspected pharmacological associations included drugs that modulated the vasomotor tone.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of muscle-relaxants as risk factors for the development of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) - the second most common retinopathy in our settings; despite multiple risk factors seen in our patients, 21% were initially labelled as idiopathic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective case-control study at a tertiary hospital in the United Arab Emirates, where we reviewed the medical records of 273 patients with CSC examined between 2010 and 2019 for use of muscle-relaxants including tolperisone/eperisone, carisoprodol and gabapentin/pregabalin within a year of onset/recurrence of the disease. Intake of drugs with known association with CSC (including corticosteroids/sympathomimetics) was also recorded. Two hundred eighty-six subjects with adverse events seen at the same institute during the same study period served as controls. Odds ratios, Chi-Square tests and multivariate logistic regression were carried out to determine any associations with the muscle-relaxants and other pharmacological confounders - corticosteroids/sympathomimetics. RESULTS: Muscle relaxants may increase the risk of CSC as evident on multivariate regression analysis (OR: 2.55; confidence interval [CI]: 1.208-5.413); the significance was retained on removing the 6 subjects who had corticosteroids/sympathomimetics (OR: 2.30; CI: 1.073–4.939). Univariate analysis yielded an OR of 2.52 for muscle relaxants (CI: 1.2149–5.2276), 2.96 for eperisone/tolperisone (CI: 1.3531–6.5038), and 6.26 for eperisone as an individual agent (CI: 1.8146–21.6252). CONCLUSION: We found muscle relaxants to be associated factors of CSC regardless of inclusion of corticosteroids/sympathomimetics ( P < 0.05). Among individual classes of muscle relaxants in this study, only eperisone/tolperisone posed a significant risk ( P < 0.05). The vascular smooth muscle relaxation could be the possible mechanism that affects the choroidal blood flow and indirectly predisposes to CSC.