Abstract
Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) involves up to 50% of the global population. The present study compared efficacy, tolerability and safety of the novel Respilac artificial tears containing Lipidure and hypromellose (HPMC) to the widely used Nextal artificial tears, HPMC-based, for the treatment of moderate DED in contact lenses (CL) wearers.Methods: In a prospective, single-center, randomized investigation, 30 patients aged ≥18 years, diagnosed with moderate DED and wearing CL were randomly assigned to Respilac (n=15) or to Nextal group (n=15). Patients self-administrated one drop of Respilac or Nextal in both eyes 3-times daily for 21 days. Changes in endpoints (Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score for ocular tolerability, Symptom Assessment iN Dry Eye (SANDE) score, Non-Invasive First Break-Up Time (NIF-BUT) results, Tear analysis value, Meibography results, CL tolerability results were investigated, comparing treatment groups and time-points evaluations. Adverse events (AEs) were also recorded and evaluated.Results: VAS scores decreased with time (p<0.001) in both groups showing no statistically significant difference among them (p=0.13). Improvements were also detected, from screening to end-of-treatment, by SANDE scores for severity and frequency (p<0.001) and by Tear analysis results (p<0.001) with no observed difference between Nextal and Respilac arm. NIF-BUT, Meibography and CL tolerability values showed to be non-significantly affected by treatment nor by time. No AEs were detected.Conclusion: According to the study results, Respilac showed to be effective, safe and well-tolerated for the treatment of moderate DED in CL wearers. Lipidure-based ophthalmic solution resulted not inferior to the currently used Nextal.