Effectiveness of autologous serum tears in severe dry eye syndrome.

Abstract

Purpose : To identify the ocular surface diseases (OSD) associated with severe dry eye syndrome (DES) in patients undergoing autologous serum tears (AST) therapy and to describe its long-term effect on signs and symptoms of DES.

Methods : Retrospective chart review was conducted from 2015-2023. Consecutive patients referred for significant DES with moderate-severe ocular surface staining, were included. Data were collected on age, sex, comorbidities, concentration of AST (%AST), number of topical drops (#TD), corneal staining (Oxford Staining Score:OSS) and OSDI score. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the variable’s distribution. A Wilcoxon test was conducted to assess significant differences in non-parametric independent variables. A significance level of < 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance (95% CI). Calculations were performed using version 4.0.2 of the R statistical program (R Core Team, Vienna, Austria).

Results : 144 eyes of 72 patients were included, mean age 62 y/o, 94.4% were female, 61.2% had other comorbidities. Most patients (73.6%) started with 20% AST, and the mean time with AST was 20 months. The most common etiology associated with severe DED was Sjogren’s disease (62.5%).
There was a statistically significant difference in the #TD before and after treatment with AST between the Sjogren’s vs. other OSD’s group (p=0.04), as well as in the mean OSS after AST therapy (p=0.01). There were no significant differences in age or associated comorbidities. In the Sjogren group, 84.4% had a decrease in OSS and 42.2% suspended at least 1 TD. In the other OSD’s group, it was 70.3% and 51.8%, respectively. We observed a trend of improvement in the OSS by increasing the concentration of AST.

Conclusions : AST therapy was found to be effective in reducing DES symptoms. Patients with Sjogren’s DED need more topical drops for adjuvant surface treatment, regardless of the AST therapy. We observed a trend of improvement in OSS with increasing the serum concentration, future studies with a bigger sample size are needed to determine the optimal %AST

This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.