Topical 100% Serum Eye Drops for Treating Corneal Epithelial Defect after Ocular Surgery

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of topical 100% serum eye drops for corneal epithelial defect after ocular surgery. A total of 181 patients who received topical 100% serum therapy for the treatment of corneal epithelial defect following several different types of ocular surgery were recruited into this study. Each patient already failed conventional medical therapy before being prescribed 100% serum eye drops. Slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination with fluorescein staining was performed at baseline and all follow-up visits. The main outcome measures were the rate of complete healing of the corneal epithelial defect and incidence of adverse events. One hundred and seventy-eight eyes (98.34%) received autologous serum eye drops, and 3 (1.66%) received allogeneic serum eye drops. The overall success rate of treating persistent postoperative epithelial defect using 100% serum eye drops was 93.92% (95% CI 0.88–0.98). The median time to complete corneal epithelialization was 4 days (95% CI 4-5). Adverse reactions were observed in 3 patients (1.66%), including sticky sensation with minimal eye discomfort and asymptomatic trace corneal subepithelial infiltration. No serious complications were reported. In conclusion, 100% serum eye drops are effective, safe, and tolerable for treating postoperative corneal epithelial defect following ocular surgeries.

Therapeutic outcomes of combined topical autologous serum eye drops with silicone–hydrogel soft contact lenses in the treatment of corneal persistent epithelial defects: A preliminary study

“…Second, in our study, we only used 20% (v/v) serum eye drops, rather than 50% (v/v) or 100% (v/v) serum eye drops, for the treatment of PEDs. Different concentrations of autologous serum or even different blood preparations such as umbilical cord blood serum or plasma rich in growth factors may lead to different clinical results [2,8,9,17,18]. Third, our study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of combining both the ASEs and BCLs in these patients who failed with conventional treatments, additional study in the future with comparative groups that are treated with standard BCLs or ASEs alone may better confirm our results.…”

“…Over the years, topical autologous serum has been used clinically as a topical in vivo medication for treating ocular surface disorders, such as recurrent corneal erosions [16], persistent epithelial defects [8,9,17,18], superior limbic keratoconjunctivitis [11], neurotrophic keratopathy [14], and dry eyes [12,13]. The idea of drawing blood to create a solution that can be deposited onto the eyes harboring various ocular diseases stems from the fact that there is a significant biological overlap between blood serum and tears.…”

“…Furthermore, the serum has no potentially toxic preservatives, stabilizers, and other additives that are often present in the artificial tears substitutes and may increase the corneal epithelial toxicity and cause further problems to the compromised cornea in ocular surface disorders [10,22]. Different investigators have used concentrations of autologous serum ranging from 20% to 100% for the treatment of PEDs and have demonstrated a healing rate of between 20% and 60% at 2 weeks and between 47% and 83% at 4 weeks [8,9,17,18]. Autologous serum has a composition similar to that of tears and provides the ocular surface with basic nutrients for epithelial renewal that are lacking in commercial preparations.…”

“…Bandage contact lenses (BCLs), especially siliconehydrogel soft contact lenses (SCLs) with high oxygen permeability and transmissibility, are useful for treating PEDs [3][4][5][6]. Over the past several years, autologous serum eye drops (ASEs) are gaining popular and widespread acceptance as adjuvant therapy for various ocular surface disorders, including PEDs recalcitrant to standard medical therapies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The combination of BCLs and ASEs for PEDs treatment have also been reported with satisfactory results in a few small series' of PED patients [3,4,6].…”

Evaluation of the Role of Umbilical Cord Serum and Autologous Serum Therapy in Reepithelialization After Keratoplasty: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] The advantage of using AS in the post-PKP EDs has been reported by many authors. Lekhanont et al 22 reported a median time to complete corneal epithelialization of 4 days in 181 eyes with PED; 151 eyes of which had postcorneal transplant PED and were using 100% serum eye drops. Chen et al 21 reported that the use of AS significantly expedited the graft reepithelialization when used in the immediate postoperative period.…”