Lacrimal gland injection of platelet rich plasma for treatment of severe dry eye: a comparative clinical study

Abstract

Abstract Background We aimed to assess the efficacy of the injections of platelet rich plasma (PRP) for the treatment of severe dry eye disease (DED). Results In this retrospecitve interventional clinincal study, we included 28 eyes of 14 patients with severe DED who were diagnosed with Sjogren syndrome. Each patient received unilateral lacrimal gland injection of PRP at days 0, 30, 60 and 90 days while the other eye served as control group who received preservative free eye drops. We objectively assessed parameters at baseline, 1 month, 2 months and 3 months including ocular surface analyzer (OSA) namely; noninvasive tear breakup times (NIBUT), tear meniscus height (TMH), lipid layer thickness (LLT) in addition to the Schirmer test I, corneal fluorescein staining (CFS) and meiboscore. The mean age was 43.4 ± .7.85 years. Comparing different parameters, baseline data showed non-significant difference between injected eye group and control group. After 1 and 3 months of follow up, there were significant differences between both groups regarding NITBUT, TMH, LLT, CFS and Schirmer test, with p < 0.001 in favor of PRP group. Conclusion Injection of PRP in lacrimal gland is simple, safe, and effective technique in treatment of severe dry eye; proved by improvement of tear film parameters through subjective and objective assessment. Further studies are needed to standardize the technique and to confirm these results.

Keywords

• Platelet rich plasma
• Lacrimal gland injection
• Dry eye
• Sjogren syndrome