Adjunctive steroid therapy versus antibiotics alone for acute endophthalmitis after intraocular procedure.

Endophthalmitis refers to severe infection within the eye that involves the aqueous humor or vitreous humor, or both, and threatens vision. Most cases of endophthalmitis are exogenous (i.e. due to inoculation of organisms from an outside source), and most exogenous endophthalmitis is acute and occurs after an intraocular procedure. The mainstay of treatment is emergent administration of broad-spectrum intravitreous antibiotics. Due to their anti-inflammatory effects, steroids in conjunction with antibiotics have been proposed to be beneficial in endophthalmitis management.