Sodium hyaluronate eye drops of different osmolarity for the treatment of dry eye in Sjögren’s syndrome patients

Sodium hyaluronate eye drops of different osmolarity for the treatment of dry eye in Sjögren’s syndrome patients.

Article specifications

This randomized, comparison Clinical trial was published in 2002 in British journal of ophthalmology (IF 2015:3.02) by Italian ophthalmologists.

In this article effects of the treatment of dry eye in Sjögren’s syndrome patients with hypotonic or isotonic hyaluronate eye drops.

This study included 40 Sjögren’s syndrome patients were divided in two groups and treated as follows: group 1 with hypotonic (150 m Osm/l) 0.4% hyaluronate eye drops; group 2 with isotonic 0.4% hyaluronate eye drops instilled six times a day for 90 days and the subjects enrolled in the study underwent grading of subjective symptoms and clinical examination at time 0 and after 15, 30, and 90 days. The following tests were performed: break up time (BUT), corneal fluorescein and conjunctival rose bengal vital staining, 14  Schirmer’s I test (mm/5 minutes), and conjunctival impression cytology.

Results

The results of this study showed that sodium hyaluronate represents a useful treatment for severe dry eye in Sjögren’s syndrome patients. The treatment with hypotonic sodium hyaluronate eye drops gives a statistically significantly better improvement in clinical and cytological signs of the disease, compared with isotonic sodium hyaluronate at the same concentration. The use of hypotonic hyaluronate eye drops should be encouraged for the treatment of patients with severe dry eye, where an increased tear osmolarity could play a part in the pathogenesis of the ocular surface damage.