OCULAR SURFACE IN DRY EYE PATIENTS IS IMPROVED AFTER ONE MONTH THERAPY WITH SYSTANE

Purpose. Systane® Lubricating Eye Drops (Alcon Forth Worth, Inc.) is designed to provide relief from dry eye by means of longer retention time on the ocular surface, based on the presence of the combination of PEG400_PG and HP-Guar (gelling hydroxypropyl-Guar) which is believed to mimic the mucin layer of tear film. The effect of Systane was evaluated in an open trial on subjects with moderate symptoms. Methods. A total of 50 subjects were enrolled (age 57.6 + 15.4; 40 women, 10 men) ; inclusion criteria were based on a tear break-up time (TBUT) < 10 sec without corneal epithelial staining. Six symptoms of ocular irritation were rated on a four-point scale. Conjunctival hyperemia was graded. Patients were instructed to instill Systane four times a day for four weeks.. Satisfaction with the product was rated at the end of the study. Media of results in both eyes was considered for statistical evaluation; the Wilcoxon test for paired data was applied, p< 0,05 was considered as statistically significant. Results All patients regularly instilled Systane and completed the follow-up; results are expressed baseline vs endpoint. Significant reduction was demonstrated for ocular irritation symptom scores (1.44 vs 0.94, p 0.0001) while improvement was shown for patient’s satisfaction score (3.41 vs 3.94, p 0.0001) and TBUT (6.9 + 0.9 vs 8.5 + 1.5 sec, p 0.0001). A significantly increased proportion of patients with normal conjunctival injection (10 vs 22, results in %, p 0.01) was observed after one month follow up. Conclusions. Systane proved effective in reducing the symptoms of dry eye and it was overall well accepted. This finding is likely to be related with improved stability of tear film, due to the protective viscous layer bound to the corneal surface