DQS bests artificial tears for dry eye after cataract procedures

Topical diquafosol sodium ophthalmic solution (DQS) is superior to artificial tears (AT) in patients with dry eye after cataract surgery, according to a recent meta-analysis published in Medicine.

“With the significant [progress] in development and refining of surgical techniques and apparatus, today cataract surgery has become one of the safest and most effective ophthalmic surgical procedures, which are performed on numerous patients. However, many patients still complain of some postoperative symptoms, such as ocular soreness, pain, burning sensation, foreign-body sensation, and poor vision,” wrote Xinyu Zhao, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China, and fellow researchers.

Dr. Zhao and colleagues conducted this meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of DQS to conventional AT for the treatment of dry eye following cataract surgery.

They searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from earliest entries through June 2017 to identify studies in which researchers assessed the efficacy of QS for patients with dry eye after cataract surgery.

In all, four studies with a total of 291 patients with dry eye after cataract surgery (371 postoperative eyes) were included. Dr. Zhao and fellow researchers found a suggestion that DQS may be significantly better at improving corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining scores, tear breakup time, and Schirmer I test compared with AT (P < 0.05). Researchers of each study demonstrated that DQS was significantly better at relieving the symptoms of postoperative dry eye.

“As far as we know, this is the first meta-analysis evaluating the efficacy of DQS and AT for treatment of dry eye following cataract surgery that includes all the available evidence of high quality. The satisfactory heterogeneity and the insignificant publication bias made our study highly reliable and might provide valuable instructions for ophthalmologists,” concluded Dr. Zhao and colleagues.

“As DQS is significantly more expensive than common AT, we need more solid evidence to conclude whether the application of DQS in our routine regimen of postoperative therapy for dry eye following cataract surgery is appropriate,” they added.