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Published on: May 2, 2020
Anti-Demodex Effect of Commercial Eyelid Hygiene Products
Asker Bulut1, Cafer Tanriverdi1
1Department of Ophthalmology, Istanbul Medipol University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
Purpose:
To investigate in vitro effects of active ingredients in eye cleansing wipes and solutions on the life span of Demodex.
Methods:
Demodex mites were extracted by eyelash epilation method from volunteers who were found to have chronic demodex blepharitis during an ophthalmological examination. Preparations with three or more motile, live adult Demodex parasites were included in the study. Two drops of the test solution were dropped on the samples: saline, 2% tea tree oil (TTO; Osto®, AKD Medical products, Turkey), 7.5% TTO (Blefaritto®, Jeomed, Turkey), and 0.5% terpinen-4-ol (T4O; Blefastop plus®, NTC, Italy). Under light microscopy at 100× and 400× magnification, samples were examined and followed. The average killing time of Demodex was noted for each preparation.
Results:
The study was analyzed on 120 patient samples. In the control group with saline, the average killing time of Demodex had an average of 323.5 ± 21.1 min. In other groups, an average mean of 95.9 ± 25.2 min in the 2% TTO group, 67.1 ± 21.8 min in the 7.5% TTO group, and 27.3 ± 6.0 min in the 0.5% T4O group was observed. It was found that the 0.5% T4O group was significantly more effective than the other groups.
Conclusion:
Chronic Demodex blepharitis treatment is quite difficult in ophthalmology practice. It appears that, even at very low concentrations, T4O has an effective anti-Demodex effect.
