Experience in the Treatment of Dry Eye Syndrome in Students with Myopic Refraction

Objective: to study the effectiveness of the hypromellose-based medicine Artificial Tears®, eye drops, in the treatment of dry eye syndrome in students with myopic refraction. Patients and methods. A total of 147 students of Academician E.A. Wagner Perm State Medical University with different types of clinical refraction were examined. Among them 63 students with myopic refraction of various degrees in 110 eyes were included in the study (mean age — 22.6 ± 0.16 years, 49 (78 %) women, 14 (22 %) men). Dry eye syndrome was detected in 49 (78 %) participants in 82 eyes (74.5 %). According to the myopia correction method, 3 groups were formed: Group 1 — students with eyeglasses; Group 2 — students constantly using soft contact lenses; Group 3 — students who had excimer laser correction by LASIK method. The remaining students (n = 14) had no dry eye syndrome. The study was conducted in two stages: at baseline and then repeated after 4 weeks in students with dry eye syndrome who used daily the medicine Artificial Tears®. Subjective assessment was based on the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire. Оbjective assessment included function tests, characterizing the precorneal tear film stability and total tear production level. Results. In the process of treatment a good tolerance of the given medicine was reported. Analysis of the overall results showed that the mean OSDI score decreased statistically significantly from 26.92 to 20.29 seconds (p ≤ 0.0001). The mean tear film break-up time increased from 7.95 to 11.25 (p ≤ 0.0001). The mean Schirmer’s test score was slightly changed: from 13.98 to 14.07 mm due to the presence of increased tear production in some students, which is characteristic of the dry eye syndrome initial manifestations. Conclusion. The medicine Artificial Tears® in the form of eye drops is well tolerated and is sufficiently effective in eliminating the dry eye syndrome manifestations after only 4 weeks of use. The treatment with the medicine Artificial Tears® showed a statistically significant reduction in the disease severity (according to the OSDI questionnaire data) and an increase in the tear film break-up time. The received results allow us to recommend the medicine Artificial Tears® for medical use in patients with various degrees of myopic refraction, regardless of the myopia correction method used.