Acupuncture effective for treating dry eye after refractive surgery: Study
Korea: In patients who have undergone a refractive surgery, acupuncture treatment in addition to usual care, seems to be a feasible treatment for dry eye syndrome, according to results from a pilot study published in the journal Integrative Medicine Research.
"A full-scale RCT is required to confirm the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture," wrote the authors.
Dry eye syndrome (DES) is the most common complication of refractive surgery. Acupuncture is used widely for the treatment of ophthalmologic diseases but only a few studies have explored its effects for treatment of DES following refractive surgery. Sanghun Lee, Campus of Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea, and colleagues, therefore, aimed to assess the feasibility of a study design for evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment along with usual care compared with usual care only for dry eye syndrome after refractive surgery.
For the purpose, a total of 18 patients with dry eye disease after refractive surgery were included in the study. For 4 weeks, the acupuncture plus usual care and usual care only groups received treatment three times a week
A series of assessments, namely the ocular surface disease index (OSDI), visual analog scale for ocular discomfort, quality of life, tear film break-up time, Schirmer 1 test, and fluorescein-stained corneal-surface photography, along with other general assessments were carried out.
Key findings of the study include:
- Although preliminary, changes in OSDI from the baseline values were significantly different between the two groups at week 5.
- There was a significant difference in the trends of OSDI changes between the acupuncture plus usual care and the usual care only groups.
- No serious adverse events were reported during the study.
"Four weeks of acupuncture treatment in addition to usual care is a feasible treatment for dry eye syndrome after refractive surgery," concluded the authors. "A full-scale randomized controlled trial is needed to confirm the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture."
Reference:
The study titled, "Acupuncture for dry eye syndrome after refractive surgery: A randomized controlled pilot trial," is published in the journal Integrative Medicine Research.
DOI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422020300883
