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Topical vitamin E may offer benefits post-PRK

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ANKARA, Turkey – Topical vitamin E treatment may help the cornea heal after phototherapeutic keratectomy. Researchers said the vitamin be useful in reducing the harmful side effects of oxygen free radicals after epithelial scraping and PRK.

Ayse Bilgihan and others here at Gazi University Medical School measured the effects of vitamin E in a study of 28 eyes divided into four groups: control eyes, epithelial scrape (in which the corneal epithelium was removed by a blunt spatula), traditional PRK and topical vitamin E post-PRK.

In the group treated with vitamin E, corneal superoxide dismutase activity did not differ significantly from that in the medically non-treated groups, nor did corneal polymorphonuclear cell infiltration after traditional PRK. Reduction of corneal glutathione peroxidase activity after PRK was significantly reduced in the eyes that received vitamin E treatment.

The study is published in the April issue of Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica.