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Autologous serum speeds corneal epithelialization in diabetics
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Corneal epithelial abrasions heal significantly faster when treated with autologous serum than with hyaluronic acid, a study found.
Stephan D. Schulze, MD, and colleagues in Germany conducted the prospective clinical trial, which included 23 diabetic patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy. In all cases, surgeons created 8 mm corneal abrasions to allow better intraoperative visualization. Patients were then randomly assigned to receive either hourly applications of autologous serum or hyaluronic acid drops, according to the study.
The researchers found that time to epithelialization averaged 7.3 days for hyaluronic acid-treated patients and 4.3 days for autologous-serum-treated patients, (P < .05), according to the study.
The study is published in the August issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.