DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2019.8.4.3

Pages: 121-128

Dry eye is a multifactorial disease of the tears, due to tear deficiency or excessive evaporation. Recently, Rebamipide has been introduced in the market for the treatment of dry eye disease. It is an amino acid derivative of 2- (1H) - quinolone. Only a few studies are available pertaining to its efficacy on dry eye disease. The study was conducted to compare the efficacy of Rebamipide 2% and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose 1% in patients with dry eye disease. It was a single blinded, prospective, comparative study of 100 patients randomly divided into two groups of 50 patients each. Group-1 was given sodium carboxymethyl cellulose 1% and Group-2 was given rebamipide 2% as the treatment modality of choice, 4 times a day for 12 weeks. The efficacy and side effects of both the drugs were evaluated and compared in both the groups individually. Tests like Schirmer’s test, tear film break up time (TBUT) and tear film staining were employed to compare the efficacy of these drugs between the groups. There was a significant improvement in mean Schirmer’s test (p<0.001) and mean tear film break up time (TBUT) (p=0.008) and a significant reduction in staining scores in REB group as compared to CMC group. The REB group gave better results at the end of 12 weeks in improvement of multiple evaluating criteria as compared to CMC group i.e.1.82± 2.21 vs. 1.10 ± 1.92 respectively and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.015). It was concluded that treatment with rebamipide and carboxymethyl cellulose lead to a generalized improvement in all the objective signs for assessment of dry eye disease. Both the drugs decreased the severity of dry eye disease. Also, the efficacy of rebamipide has been found to be better than carboxymethyl cellulose.