Autologous Serum Treatment and Lasik dry eye

[Raginator]

Has anyone here received autologous serum treament for Lasik-induced dry eye. Or for any refractive surgery dry eye? With no other conditions such as Sjögren's sydrome.

I'm curious.

Has anyone with refractive surgery dry eye tried autologous serum treatment?

If so, what was the effect?

Are there any "growth factors" present in Autologous serum?
(I don't know the answer).

I wonder if Autologous serum would have any temporary or permanent effect on the corneal nerves or tissues in the eyes.

I'm curious if anyone knows.

Thank you all.

[tombuilder]

serum...

I have tried it, starting about two years post LASIK. I used them for about two months and stopped, at Dr. Latkany's directive. These drops felt nice, and gave me a longer lasting comfort than a lot of the standard OTC drops I was using, but I don't think they have any rapid "nerve healing" properties, at least not 2 years post LASIK. Dr. L was of the opinion that they weren't helping, either.

It's been hard for me to "give up" on therapies, as I often wish to throw everything I can at this problem, but it seems sometimes more isn't necessarily better. Tough to be scientific and patient when we just want some relief.

[Guest]

For anyone who has tried these and posts, it would be good to know the concentration of you serum drops, as well as how many times per day you used them...

I read a study indicating that higher concentrations were more effective... concentrations ranged from 20% to 100% serum...

Anyhow, I just started mine in the last couple of weeks... 50% serum 1 drop 4x daily in each eye. So far I like them, but it's too early for me to know if they will do anything dramatic for me.

[indrep]

When your ocular surface is inflamed the body has a process to reduce the osmolarity of your ocular surface. One of the processes is "vascular permeation". Many of you, if not all, notice how red your eyes become. This is the body's way of getting serum to the ocular surface. Serum is hypotonic. The tears on your ocular surface are hypertonic and this causes inflammation.

I know several doctors who use autologous serum with Oasis TEARS Plus and are having success with most patients. You now have two solutions working closely to reduce osmolarity.

[Raginator]

I was curious if there was some nerve "miracle grow" in the serum.


Pardon me, but I'm a bit obsessed with corneal nerve endings.
I can't keep but wondering if these nerves can ever be "fixed".
Sounds like it's beyond the abilities of modern medicine.
Or am I wrong?

I keep wondering. Even if it takes years.

[Guest]

I was curious if there was some nerve "miracle grow" in the serum.


Pardon me, but I'm a bit obsessed with corneal nerve endings.
I can't keep but wondering if these nerves can ever be "fixed"

Heehee... "miracle grow"... I like that! Wouldn't THAT be nice!

I, too, am always wondering if those nerves will ever function at pre-lasik levels again... if they can, then in theory, even someone with as prolonged and severe dry eye as myself might some day be able to be "normal" IF the inflammation can be brought under control, and IF the lacrimal glands or MG's have not atrophied and permanently ceased functioning, and IF the mucin layer can be brought back to wherever it was pre-lasik... what a lot of IF's....