Side Effects

Drug information provided by: Merative, Micromedex®

Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention.

Check with your doctor immediately if any of the following side effects occur:

More common

  1. Burning or stinging
  2. itching at the application site

Less common

  1. Blistering, burning, crusting, dryness, or flaking of the skin
  2. cracking or tightening of the skin
  3. dry skin
  4. flushing or redness of the skin
  5. irritation
  6. itching, scaling, severe redness, soreness, or swelling of the skin
  7. thinning of the skin with easy bruising, especially when used on the face or where the skin folds together (eg, between the fingers)
  8. unusually warm skin

Rare

  1. Blistering, peeling, or loosening of the skin

Incidence not known

  1. Blindness
  2. blurred vision
  3. change in vision
  4. decreased vision
  5. eye pain
  6. headache
  7. loss of vision
  8. nausea
  9. redness and scaling around the mouth
  10. tearing
  11. vomiting

Some side effects may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects. Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them:

Less common

  1. Raised, dark red, or wart-like spots on the skin, especially when used on the face

Rare

  1. Burning, itching, and pain in hairy areas, or pus at the root of the hair

Incidence not known

  1. Acne or pimples
  2. burning and itching of the skin with pinhead-sized red blisters
  3. increased hair growth on the forehead, back, arms, and legs
  4. lightening of normal skin color
  5. lightening of treated areas of dark skin
  6. reddish purple lines on the arms, face, legs, trunk, or groin
  7. softening of the skin

Other side effects not listed may also occur in some patients. If you notice any other effects, check with your healthcare professional.

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

Portions of this document last updated: Feb. 01, 2024

Copyright: © Merative US L.P. 1973, 2024. All rights reserved. Information is for End User's use only and may not be sold, redistributed or otherwise used for commercial purposes.