[Treatment of keratoconjunctivitis sicca (author's transl)]

The mucolytic agent bromhexine in 0.2% solution in eye drops form was compared with 0.5% methyl cellulose eye drops in a controlled single-blind crossover study involving 24 volunteers (seven men and 17 women) in whom sicca syndrome had been diagnosed on the basis of the lysozyme test. There was no statistically significant difference between the volunteers' preferences for one of the two products or in the objective parameters, i.e. the lysozyme test, the bengal red rating scale and Schirmer's test. Seven subjects showed a distinct preference for treatment with Dakryo Biciron and six patients preferred methyl cellulose; the remaining patients had no special preference for either of the two drugs. The preference for one of the two drugs could not be correlated with the values of the objective parameters.