Dry eye disease (DED) is a chronic ocular surface disease and the prevalence of DED has been
reported as high as 50%. Recently, The international Dry Eyes Workshop II (DEWS II) defines
dry eye as a "multifactorial disease of the ocular surface characterized by a loss of
homeostasis of the tear film, and accompanied by ocular symptoms, in which tear film
instability and hyperosmolarity, ocular surface inflammation and damage, and neurosensory
abnormalities play etiological roles". A study done by Yoon et al. on 31 patients with severe
DED concluded that UCS eye drops are effective and safe in treating severe DED. Studies found
that EGF, TGF-β, VEGF and vitamin A levels were significantly higher in UCS than peripheral
blood serum(PBS) whereas IGF content was significantly higher in PBS than in CBS. Yoon et al.
then conducted another study whereby he compared UCS to AS in treating both Sjögren syndrome
and non- Sjögren syndrome patients with severe dry eyes. They concluded that UCS eye drops
were more effective in decreasing symptoms and keratoepitheliopathy in severe dry eye
syndrome and increasing goblet cell density in Sjögren syndrome compared with AS drops.
Despite proven more effective in treating DED, serum eye drops are not yet widely
manufactured due to a few reasons. This study is chosen because
1. Not many previous clinical trials done related to UCS eye drops.
2. There were only two clinical trials done before to compare the use of UCS eye drops
versus conventional AT eye drops on Hansen's disease and acute ocular chemical burn
injury population.
3. To apply the newer technology of Keratograph® 5M in DED assessment.
4. To initiate a proper standard operating procedure for production as well as delivery of
serum eye drops which allowing out-patient treatment with serum eye drops possible.