Povidone side effects: what 333 FDA adverse event reports show

Povidone · 7 reaction terms · 72 drug–reaction co-reports · data 2026-09-14

Drug class

Not stated in label

Who reports

333 reports · 73% serious · 27 with death outcome · 62% female

openFDA FAERS counts, all years, deduplication not applied

Used for

(one or more of these) For the temporary relief of burning and irritation due to dryness of the eye For the temporary relief of discomfort due to minor irritations of the eye or to exposure to wind and sun For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye For use as a lubricant to prevent further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye.

FDA label, Indications and Usage

Boxed warning

None in the current label

How to read this page. FAERS is a spontaneous-reporting system: counts are not incidence rates and a signal is not proof of causation. Each reaction below is run through an automated screen — is the term in the FDA label (known), in the indications (the disease being treated), an administrative/coding term, or none of these (unlabeled)? That screen is mechanical text matching, not a causality assessment. The 30 hand-written Bradford Hill assessments are on the causality assessment page. Not medical advice.

Causality screen of the 7 strongest signals

No label text to screen 7

What the badges mean

Not in label — unassessed Not found in the label text, not an artifact pattern. This is a genuine candidate for a formal causality assessment (Bradford Hill / WHO-UMC); it has NOT had one here.
No label text to screen No validated FDA label was retrievable for this product, so the screen could not run. Disproportionality only.

Strongest disproportionality signals

Flagged terms (PRR ≥ 2, χ² ≥ 4, n ≥ 10), ranked by PRR; infinite PRRs (no comparator reports) excluded. The EBGM column is a second, shrinkage-based estimate (MGPS) with its 5th percentile EB05 and the BCPNN IC025; a pair flagged by PRR alone is marked PRR-only and should be read as fragile. The strata column recomputes the PRR on serious reports only and flags pairs whose reports are unusually skewed by sex or come mostly from consumers rather than clinicians. 0 further terms are in the interactive explorer. Reaction links open the term's cross-drug page.

Show: hide coding/lab/outcome terms hide indication terms unlabeled only hide PRR-only

Reaction	Reports	PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p	EBGM EB05 · IC025	Label screen	Serious-only & strata	Trial cross-check
Eye inflammation	7	46.8 22.5–97.3ROR 47.7 · χ² 269 / p 8e-61	41.7 EB05 21.6 · IC025 +2.2 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious n=7	no trial data cached
Skin reaction	9	40.3 21.2–76.8ROR 41.4 · χ² 307 / p 6e-69	37.3 EB05 21.0 · IC025 +2.6 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 54.3	no trial data cached
Visual acuity reduced	17	32.0 20.1–50.8ROR 33.6 · χ² 480 / p 1e-106	31.0 EB05 20.5 · IC025 +3.3 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 30.1	no trial data cached
Agranulocytosis (severe loss of white cells)	7	23.9 11.5–49.6ROR 24.3 · χ² 131 / p 1e-30	21.6 EB05 9.8 · IC025 +1.9 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 18.9	no trial data cached
Eye irritation	21	23.7 15.7–35.9ROR 25.3 · χ² 436 / p 5e-97	23.3 EB05 16.0 · IC025 +3.2 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 17.9	no trial data cached
Uveitis	5	23.3 9.8–55.7ROR 23.7 · χ² 86 / p 1e-20	19.2 EB05 6.2 · IC025 +1.4 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 19.7	no trial data cached
Syringe issue	6	21.6 9.8–47.7ROR 21.9 · χ² 98 / p 2e-23	18.5 EB05 6.9 · IC025 +1.6 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious n=6	no trial data cached

Trial evidence (ClinicalTrials.gov)

Trial cross-check not yet run for this drug (ClinicalTrials.gov pull covers the 800 most-reported drugs first).

Most frequently reported reactions

By raw co-report count, regardless of disproportionality. Common terms here are often the illness itself or generic outcomes.

Reaction	Reports	PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p	EBGM EB05 · IC025	Label screen	Serious-only & strata	Trial cross-check
Eye irritation	21	23.7 15.7–35.9ROR 25.3 · χ² 436 / p 5e-97	23.3 EB05 16.0 · IC025 +3.2 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 17.9	no trial data cached
Visual acuity reduced	17	32.0 20.1–50.8ROR 33.6 · χ² 480 / p 1e-106	31.0 EB05 20.5 · IC025 +3.3 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 30.1	no trial data cached
Skin reaction	9	40.3 21.2–76.8ROR 41.4 · χ² 307 / p 6e-69	37.3 EB05 21.0 · IC025 +2.6 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 54.3	no trial data cached
Agranulocytosis (severe loss of white cells)	7	23.9 11.5–49.6ROR 24.3 · χ² 131 / p 1e-30	21.6 EB05 9.8 · IC025 +1.9 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 18.9	no trial data cached
Eye inflammation	7	46.8 22.5–97.3ROR 47.7 · χ² 269 / p 8e-61	41.7 EB05 21.6 · IC025 +2.2 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious n=7	no trial data cached
Syringe issue	6	21.6 9.8–47.7ROR 21.9 · χ² 98 / p 2e-23	18.5 EB05 6.9 · IC025 +1.6 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious n=6	no trial data cached
Uveitis	5	23.3 9.8–55.7ROR 23.7 · χ² 86 / p 1e-20	19.2 EB05 6.2 · IC025 +1.4 3/3 methods agree	No label text to screen label has no adverse-reaction text	serious PRR 19.7	no trial data cached

Unlabeled candidate signals

Every screened signal with n ≥ 20 was either labeled, an indication term, or an artifact pattern — no unlabeled candidate stood out in the top signals.

Want to assess one of these properly? The runbook describes the Bradford Hill / trial-evidence workflow used on the assessment page, and handoff_top1000_signals.csv lists the strongest unassessed pairs across all drugs.

Common questions

What are the most reported side effects of Povidone?

In FDA FAERS, the most frequently co-reported reaction terms for Povidone are eye irritation, visual acuity reduced, skin reaction, agranulocytosis, eye inflammation, syringe issue. These are report counts, not rates: FAERS has no denominator, reporting is voluntary and uneven, and a term can be reported because of the illness being treated rather than the drug.

Does Povidone have an FDA boxed warning?

No. The FDA label retrieved for Povidone has no boxed warning; see the label's Warnings and Precautions for the recognised risks.

Do FAERS signals prove that Povidone causes these side effects?

No. A disproportionality signal (PRR, ROR) means a reaction is reported more often with this drug than with others in the database. That can reflect a real effect, but also the disease being treated, stimulated reporting after news or litigation, co-medications, or how reports are coded. Causality needs temporality, dose-response, biological plausibility, consistency across data sources and, ideally, trial or cohort evidence. This page screens each term against the FDA label and ClinicalTrials.gov results; it does not establish causation.

Sources & methods

FDA label via openFDA (set ID 1f06ca1a-5270-9a82-e063-6294a90aed64, effective 20260429; matched on openfda.generic_name.exact:"POVIDONE")
Bayesian shrinkage measures computed offline over all 1,317,300 cached pairs: BCPNN information component (IC, with Norén closed-form IC025) and MGPS empirical-Bayes geometric mean (EBGM, EB05) with a two-component gamma prior fitted by maximum marginal likelihood (α₁=0.57, β₁=0.02, α₂=1.42, β₂=0.70, w=0.17); unstratified
FAERS pair statistics from the OpenPV build of 2026-09-14 (openFDA count= aggregation, field patient.drug.openfda.generic_name.exact, 7 reaction terms, min 3 co-reports); PRR/ROR with 95% CI, chi-square with Yates correction
Serious-only and stratified counts (serious:1, patient.patientsex, primarysource.qualification) from openFDA count queries; serious-only PRR uses the drug serious report total and the term global serious total (N_serious=11,882,979); strata shown only when n ≥ 20
Seriousness and sex counts from openFDA count=serious, patient.patientsex, seriousnessdeath

Page generated 2026-10-08. Label and PubChem text are retrieved automatically and may lag the current label; always check the current prescribing information. OpenPV is a beta research tool of the Open Source Medicine Foundation.