Alternative dry eye disease treatment effective

Sodium hyaluronate (SH) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) are safe and effective in treating mild to moderate dry eye disease, claimed an investigation published in Cornea.

Dr Ji Hwan Lee and his team at The Institute of Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, saw a significant improvement in both SH and CMC groups after treatment.

The prospective, randomized, blind study focused on 67 mild to moderate dry eye patients. There were 32 patients in the SH group and 33 patients in the CMC group. For 8 weeks they were administered preservative-free unit dose formula eyedrops of 0.1% SH or 0.5% CMC 6 times a day. The outcome measures included tear film break-up time, adverse reactions, subjective symptoms and corneal and conjunctival staining with fluorescein. The patients were assessed 4 weeks and 8 weeks after treatment began.

Tear film break-up time, dry eye symptom score and corneal and conjunctival staining significantly improved. There was no significant difference between both groups and no adverse reactions in the follow-up period.

SH and CMC were found to be efficient in the treatment of mild to moderate dry eye disease in the form of a preservative-free artificial tear formulation.