Clinical observation on effects of internal and external treatment of Chinese medicine on dry eye

OBJECTIVE To observe the effect of internal and external treatment of Chinese medicine on dry eye. METHODS From January 2009 to December 2012, 61 dry eye patients were randomly divided into traditional Chinese medicine group and western medicine group. Traditional Chinese medicine group was treated with tradition-al Chinese medicine, eye acupuncture points rubbing and fumigation with TCM decoction. Western medicine group received 0.1% of Sodium Hyaluronate Eye Drops and tetracycline and cortisone eye ointment, drop coating conjunc-tival sac, the total course of 8 weeks was observed before and after treatment on clinical curative effect and symptom score, corneal fluorescein staining(FL) Schirmer I test(SIT), tear film break-up time(BUT), intraocular pressure(IOP) changes. RESULTS There were 32 cases in Chinese medicine group, 6 cases with excellent effect, 24 cases better, 2 cases invalid, and the total effective rate was 93.75%; There were 29 cases in western medicine group, 3cases with excellent effect, 15 cases better, 2 cases invalid, and the total effective rate was 62.07%, The total curative effect of both groups showed significant difference(P0.05). After 8 weeks' treatment, the observation index of Chinese medicine group was better than that before treatment(P0.05), and the western medicine group(P0.05).Symptoms score, FL and BUT were all better than before treatment and in the western medicine group(P 0.05).There was no significant change in IOP before and after treatment in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Internal and external treatment of Chinese medicine could relieve symptoms of patients with dry eyes and improve FL, SIT, BUT.