Vitamin A & Cyclosporine A (2008) - Dry Eye Syndrome

Learn more about natural treatment of dry eyes.

A 2008 study shows that using eyedrops with Vitamin A Palmitate can improve symptoms of blurred vision and tear film after just 4 weeks of usage. It was a prospective, randomized, controlled, parallel group study whose purpose was to compare the efficacy of vitamin A (retinyl palmitate) and cyclosporine A 0.05% eye drops in treating patients with dry eye disease.

In 3 identical clinical trials, 150 patients with dry eye disease were treated either 2x daily with cyclosporine A 0.05%, or 4x daily with retinyl palmitate 0.05%, or neither. In addition, preservative-free artificial tears were given 4x daily in every group. Corneal dye staining observation, Schirmer tear tests, tear film break-up times, dry eye symptom scores, and impression cytologic analysis results were obtained before treatment and at the first, second, and third months after treatment began.

Results:
Both vitamin A eye drops and topical cyclosporine A 0.05% treatments led to significant improvement in blurred vision, tear film break-up times, Schirmer I score results, and impression cytologic findings in patients with dry eye syndrome (P < .05) compared to the control group treated with preservative-free artificial tears alone.

Conclusions:
Both vitamin A eye drops and topical cyclosporine A 0.05% treatments are effective for the treatment of dry eye disorder.

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Published: published online 09 October 2008

Researchers: Choun-Ki Joo, Department of Ophthalmology, KangNam St Mary's Hospital, #505 Ban-Po Dong, Seocho-Ku, Seoul 137-040, Korea

Note: two recommended products for dry eyes which contain vitamin A as retinyl palmitate are BioTears and VivaDrops.