["Dry eye" and artificial tear solutions (author's transl)]

Seventeen patients in whom "dry eye" had been diagnosed each tried four coded commercial artificial tear solutions for one week, in random sequence. The correlation of the function tests (Schirmer test, break-up tie, goblet cell count in conjunctival biopsy) did not permit a grouping of the patients. A tendency to a correlation between break-up time and goblet cell count was noted. It was not possible to show a preference on the part of certain patients for particular products; thus, with the current function tests available, a precise therapeutic classification of "dry eye" patients does not seem possible.