Abstract
A double-blind clinical trial was performed on 26 patients suffering from corneal ulcers of proven (i.e., culture-positive) bacterial etiology. After their recruitment, the subjects were randomly assigned to one of the following treatment protocols: (1) tobramycin (15 mg/ml) in saline applied at 1 drop/h or (2) tobramycin (15 mg/ml) in low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid applied at 1 drop/h. The sample size was adjusted according to a type I error of 0.01 and type all error of 0.05 for a minimal expected difference of 35%. The healing time was calculated from the beginning of treatment to the day on which a follow-up fluorescein test proved to be negative. The mean healing time (±SD) was 3.5 ±0.9 days in the sodium hyaluronate group and 5.9 ± 1.5 days in the saline group (P < 0.001). These results suggest that treatment with an antibiotic dissolved in low-molecular-weight sodium hyaluronate can further shorten the clinical course of a bacterial corneal ulcer.
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This study was supported by grants from the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Rome, Italy, and was presented at the 1990 Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Sarasota, Florida
Offprint requests to: S.A. Gandolfi
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Gandolfi, S.A., Massari, A. & Orsoni, J.G. Low-molecular-weight sodium hyaluronate in the treatment of bacterial corneal ulcers. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 230, 20–23 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166757
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166757