Using diabetic patients once daily fingerprick autologous blood eye drops for diabetic dry eye disease- A modified regimen to treat and prevent diabetic dry eye disease

Abstract

Purpose: Diabetic patients tend to suffer from dry eye disease due to associated various reasons. Autologous blood is both safe and effective for treating Dry Eye Disease (DED) according to studies. Several papers demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness of four times Fingerprick Autologous Blood (FAB) eye drops to treat dry eye disease. As some diabetic patients perform daily finger pricking to monitor blood glucose level, the blood that remains can be used to apply to eyes to treat and prevent dry eye disease. This study intends to investigate if once daily fingerprick autologous blood eye drop in conjunction with blood glucose test is feasible and effective for diabetic patients who suffer from mild to moderate dry eye disease also to avoid four times fingerprick. This may be the first study on using diabetic patients once daily fingerprick autologous blood eye drops for mild to moderate diabetic’s dry eye disease. Design, setting and participants: This case series study enrolled 25 diabetics patients with mild to moderate DED who received ophthalmological care at a single clinic in Honolulu, Hawaii. All patients were performing once daily finger prick tests to monitor their blood glucose level. Participants were instructed to instill the remaining FAB after blood glucose tests into the medial inner canthus of each eye for one month. Patients remained on their daily dry eye treatment regimen throughout the study. Main outcomes and measures: The OSDI (Ocular Surface Disease Index) scores to categorize severity of DED were used for comparison before and after using FAB eye drop daily for one month. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the acceptability and compliance. Result: 52% of patients after one month of the trial demonstrated improvement in categorization of the severity in DED and willing to continue in the future. Conclusion and relevance: FAB that remained after routine once daily blood glucose testing applied to the eyes may be feasible to enhance prevention and treatment of mild to moderate Diabetic DED. It may be disseminated and used in conjunction with the general practice in diabetic’s patient care.