Treatment of severe ocular surface disorders with albumin eye drops

Promising healing effects by albumin eye drops (AED) on the corneal epithelium have been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to analyze retrospectively if AED are an effective treatment for severe ocular surface defects and if recurrences can be reduced.

Seventeen patients with persistent epithelial defects (PED) and 30 patients with sterile corneal ulcers (CU) were treated either with 5% AED or 0.1% hyaluronan eye drops (HED) 8 times daily until complete epithelium closure. Sizes of the corneal defects, length of treatment and follow-up period, as well as recurrence rate were evaluated. Follow-up of PED was carried out for 126 ± 21 days in the AED group and 142 ± 39 days in the HED group. For CU cases, regular follow-up visits were performed for 117 ± 15 days in the AED group and 112 ± 28 days in the HED group.

Nine patients in PED group were treated for 11 ± 4 days with AED and the HED group (8 patients) was treated for 10 ± 3 days until corneal epithelium was closed, with only one recurrence in the HED group (P = 0.67). Fifteen patients in CU group were treated for 18 ± 6 days with AED and the HED group (15 patients) was treated for 21 ± 7 days until epithelial closure, with 1 recurrence in the AED group and 8 in the HED group (P = 0.03).

This comparative retrospective case-control study showed that AED are able to close corneal epithelial defects like CU and PED as good as HED. Even though times of healing were similar for both treatments, AED seem to reduce the recurrence of sterile CU. Our findings suggest that AED might be beneficial in the management of ocular surface epithelial damage; however, further larger studies are necessary to confirm these results.