51
EW CORNEA
December 2018
Contact information
Gupta: preeya.gupta@duke.edu
Jeng: BJeng@som.umaryland.edu
you have to find a good compound-
ing pharmacy that's able to process
it into an eye drop, and there hasn't
been an easy way to get it," Dr.
Gupta said, adding that the same is
true for platelet-rich plasma. While
with proper equipment clinicians
can potentially spin the blood down
themselves in the office, this may
open a sterilization and safety Pan-
dora's box, she said.
Eyeing the evidence
Evidence at this point on the effi-
cacy of biologic products for dry
eye tends to be anecdotal, Dr. Jeng
pointed out. While there aren't cur-
rently any randomized controlled
trials, there are case series available.
A Cochrane review
1
showed that
there was no definitive evidence to
suggest that these agents are better
than traditional treatments for dry
eye. "But they're used differently,"
Dr. Jeng said. "Generally, this is used
for people who have failed many
other things, so if you talk to cornea
specialists, they will say that it does
work in the right patients."
Dr. Gupta took part in a retro-
spective chart review
2
involving 21
patients who took amniotic cyto-
kine drops twice daily for 30 days
to attempt to quell their dry eye
disease. Investigators found that pa-
tients' dryness scores after 4 weeks
dropped down to 41.4 from 68, and
mean corneal staining was down to
3.2 from 7.2, Dr. Gupta reported.
Overall, with success such as
this and compounding becoming
more available, Dr. Gupta expects
to see other biologics come out of
this category. "I think that anything
that we could do to help patients
garner insurance coverage or better
access to these medications would
be a step in the right direction," she
said. EW
References
1. Pan Q, et al. Autologous serum eye drops
for dry eye. Cochrane Database Syst Rev.
2017;2:CD009327.
2. Gupta PK. Clinical outcomes of amniotic
cytokine extract in the treatment of dry eye
disease. Presented at the 2017 American
Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting.
Editors' note: Dr. Gupta has financial
interests with Ocular Science. Dr. Jeng
has financial interests with TissueTech
(Miami, Florida).
