Background

Serum eye drops have been increasingly used world wide for years as an experimental therapy for severe forms of dry eyes. In cases where autologous blood donation is not possiblefor various reasons, allogeneic serum eye drops are used. At the University Hospital of Cologne, treatment with allogeneic serum eye drops has been possible since 2017 as part of an individual healing attempt.

Methods

In a retrospective database, relevant clinical and epidemiological information of the patients was acquired. Production in general has already been reported elsewhere in 2016.

Results

In the period between 2017 and 2022, 556 allogeneic preparations were produced for 142 patients. Most of the patients needed the eye drops because of keratoconjunctivitis sicca. As underlying disease, 63(44.3%) patients had an occult GvHD, 20(14.1%) neurotrophic keratitis, 9(6.3%) Sjörgens syndrome. In 7(4.9%) cases the eye drops were used to support corneal healing, e.g. after a trauma. 59 (41.5%) patients could not donate autologous blood due to adverse health conditions, 20(14.1%) due to anemia, 20(14.1%) due to contraindicated comorbidities, and 15(10.6%) due to weight. 7(4.9%) patients were given allogenic serum eye drops based on non-response to autologous blood eye drops.

Conclusion

With an expertise of 6 years, we could show that allogenic serum eye drops are an alternative to autologous eye drops for patients with contraindications for auto- donation. Future subjective effectivity trials are in the pipeline.

Offenlegung Interessenkonflikt:

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