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Autologous serum eye drops for dry eye
Qing Pan1,2, Adla Angelina3, Michael Marrone4
1Department of Ophthalmology, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College, 158 Shangtang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
|March 1, 2017
Summary
Autologous serum eye drops (AS) may offer short-term symptom relief for dry eye compared to artificial tears, but evidence is limited. Further high-quality research is needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of AS for dry eye treatment.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Dry Eye Disease Research
- Biologics in Eye Care
Background:
- Autologous serum eye drops (AS) are explored as a lacrimal substitute, potentially mimicking natural tears due to biochemical components.
- AS has gained traction as a second-line therapy for managing dry eye disease.
- Existing studies suggest autologous serum may be an effective treatment for dry eye.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy and safety of autologous serum eye drops (AS) in treating dry eye.
- To compare AS, alone or with artificial tears, against artificial tears, saline, placebo, or no treatment in adults with dry eye.
Main Methods:
- A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing AS with artificial tears for dry eye treatment.
- Searched multiple databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, LILACS, ISRCTN, ClinicalTrials.gov, and WHO ICTRP.
- Data extraction and risk of bias assessment were performed independently by two reviewers; meta-analysis was not conducted due to heterogeneity.
Main Results:
- Five RCTs involving 92 participants were included; evidence quality was low to very low due to reporting issues and risk of bias.
- One trial indicated AS might offer short-term symptom improvement over artificial tears (low-certainty evidence), with mixed ocular surface outcomes.
- Comparisons with saline showed no significant differences in symptoms or most objective measures, except for a potential improvement in Rose Bengal staining (very low-certainty evidence).
Conclusions:
- Inconsistent benefits of AS were reported for improving dry eye symptoms and objective clinical measures.
- A potential short-term benefit in symptoms compared to artificial tears was observed, but no effect was evident after two weeks.
- High-quality RCTs are needed to assess AS efficacy using standardized outcomes and biomarkers across different dry eye severities.
