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Finger-Prick Autologous Blood (FAB) Eye Drops for Dry Eye Disease: Single Masked Multi-Centre Randomised Controlled Trial

Department of External Eye Diseases, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK. Department of Ophthalmology, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK. Department of Healthcare, University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK. Trials department, Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit, London, UK. Department of Eye Research, Vision and Eye Research Institute (VERI) Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. Department of Ophthalmology, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK.

Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.). 2022;16:3973-3979
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Abstract
PURPOSE To investigate the quantitative and qualitative efficacy of finger-prick autologous blood (FAB) eye drops versus conventional medical therapy for the treatment of severe dry eye disease (DED). METHODS Two centre, single masked, randomised controlled trial. Sixty patients in total were recruited with thirty patients (sixty eyes) treated with FAB eye drops four times per day in addition to their conventional DED treatment, and thirty patients (fifty-eight eyes) served as control subjects on conventional treatment alone. Ocular surface disease index (OSDI), Schirmer's test, fluorescein ocular staining grade (OCSG) Oxford schema and fluorescein tear film break-up time (TBUT), were performed at baseline, at 4 and 8 weeks. RESULTS OSDI scores significantly decreased in the FAB arm by greater than -17.68 (-37.67 to -2.96, p=0.02) compared to the control arm. There were greater improvements in OCSG and TBUT in the FAB arm but these were non-significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSION This feasibility study demonstrates adding FAB eye drops to conventional medical therapy for DED improves mean OSDI symptom score compared to conventional medical therapy alone. It may have particular use in settings where serum is unobtainable. An adequately powered and well-designed randomised trial is needed to further evaluate the long-term clinical benefit of FAB.
Study details
Language : eng
Credits : Bibliographic data from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine