What is it about?
Dry eye is a very common condition and with the increased popularity of traditional chinese medicine, some patients have opted for acupuncture or herbal medicine. We identify a group of dry eye patients with lung kidney yin deficiency and enrolled them in a randomised controlled trial. All arms of the study will also use an eyedrop called systane ultra (which is a transient gell available at many pharmacies). We found that acupuncture over one month reduces conjunctival hyperemia and dry eye symptoms. Tear TNFa, more than the other cytokines, is also significantly reduced compared to baseline.
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Why is it important?
Because of the great prevalence of dry eye, it is not possible for all of them to be managed at eye specialists. Treatment by experienced TCM practitioners may allow some patients to be managed in the community.
Perspectives
TNFa is also known to be elevated after cataract surgery, so it is interesting that acupuncture can reduce this proinflammatory cytokine.
Prof Louis Tong
National University of Singapore
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Acupuncture and herbal formulation compared with artificial tears alone: evaluation of dry eye symptoms and associated tests in randomised clinical trial, BMJ Open Ophthalmology, June 2018, BMJ,
DOI: 10.1136/bmjophth-2018-000150.
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