Cortisone is a corticosteroid hormone (glucocorticoid).
Contents
Uses
- Cortisone belongs to the family of medications known as corticosteroids. It is used to treat several conditions and works by reducing swelling, inflammation, and irritation. It is more commonly used to treat allergic reactions, certain skin conditions, severe asthma, and arthritis.
Benefits
A cortisone injection can also be used to give short-term pain relief and reduce the swelling from inflammation of a joint, tendon, or bursa in, for example, the joints of the knee, elbow, and shoulder and into a broken coccyx.
Cortisone may also be used to deliberately suppress immune response in persons with autoimmune diseases or following an organ transplant to prevent transplant rejection. The suppression of the immune system may also be important in the treatment of inflammatory conditions.
Cortisone is a common treatment for a severe sore throat that occurs commonly with EBV infectious mononucleosis. Cortisone does not decrease the duration of the viral infection, but is used purely to increase the comfort of a patient with trouble speaking or swallowing as a result of the mononucleosis-induced swollen throat.
Cortisone is also used by dermatologists to treat keloids, relieve the symptoms of eczema and atopic dermatitis, and stop the development of sarcoidosis.
Cautions
- Cortisone should not be taken by anyone who:
- is allergic to cortisone or to any of the ingredients of the medication
- is having an acute psychotic episode
- has an internal fungal infection
- has herpes simplex infection of the eye
- has tuberculosis
Interactions
- You should tell your doctor about all prescription, nonprescription, illegal, recreational, herbal, nutritional, or dietary drugs you’re taking while on cortisone, especially:
- Aspirin
- Diuretics (water pills)
- Blood thinners such as warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven)
- Cyclosporine (Restasis, Gengraf, Neoral, Sandimmune)
- Insulin or other diabetes medications you take by mouth
- Ketoconazole (Nizoral)
- Rifampin (Rifadin, Rifater, Rifamate, Rimactane)
- Seizure medications such as phenytoin (Dilantin) or phenobarbital (Luminal, Solfoton)
Other names
Cortone, Cortisone
References
Source: Everydayhealth, http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/cortisone
Chealthcanoe, http://chealth.canoe.com/drug_info_details.asp?brand_name_id=739
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisone