Autologous Serum Efficacy Study in Patients With Severe Dry Eye

Autologous Serum Efficacy Study in Patients With Severe Dry Eye

The purpose of this study is to compare the reduction in symptomatology of patients with severe dry eye treated with autologous serum and conventional artificial tears.

Severe dry eye remains an important and frequent eye disease, that reflects in a severe impairment of the patient´s life quality. Up to date there is no ideal therapy for this condition. Few studies have reported some kind of improvement in different parameters related to dry eye with the use of autologous serum, but no one has considered the patient´s symptoms with a systematic and validated evaluation method.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age > 18 years
• Severe Dry Eye, as defined by a OSDI score > or = 40

Plus:

• Tear Break Up Time (TBUT) < 5 seconds
• Cornea-conjunctival epithelial defects measured by Fluorescein staining and evaluation using the Oxford score.

Exclusion Criteria:

• No dry eye associated ocular disease
• Unable to comply protocol
• Severe anemia
• Previous use of autologous serum
• Concomitant use of other topical ocular drug
• Hypersensibility to any proposed interventions