Ocular side effects of systemic steroid therapy in renal transplant patients.

Sixty-one renal transplant patients were studied for ocular complications of steroid therapy. Twenty patients (32.8%) were found to have posterior subcapsular cataract. Three patients (4.9%) had ocular hypertension. There was no significant correlation between cataract formation and the total dose of steroids, number of rejection episodes, or the period of hemodialysis. HLA-A9 was present in noncataract patients to a greater extent, a statistically significant (P less than .05) finding not reported before to our knowledge.