For the first time ever...

[No tears in ATL]

Faith, to answer your question, my eyes are pretty veiny looking, in my opinion (especially my right eye, which has a small pingueculae) and the veins get bigger and redder the more inflamed I become. Also, the inner corners and rims of the eyes become quite red during flareups. The veins will always be there, unfortunately, but I guess they are not as red and pronounced when the inflammation is down. The eyes don't look as great as when I used steroid drops, but they are somewhere in the middle right now with the serum. I've also tried to do a decent job of getting enough sleep, because if I don't, all heck breaks loose and we are back to square one with mega flareups.

[No tears in ATL]

Neil how can you try this in Australia ? I thought the dr has to request for the higher concentration and Im not sure if its even within red cross guidelines to do more than 20% serum .
But whenever i ask my Dr about higher concentration or plasma he gives me a puzzle look and says no.

Im going in for another collection very soon so will b interested to hear how u go convincing ur Dr for higher concentration.

The no saline would b good but increased growth factors may b bad for glands ...i really have no idea. ...

Has anyone here with MGD had problems with 100 percent? SAAG, aren't you on 100 percent? Anyone else with MGD?

[Faith1989]

My doctor said i can safely use 1 drop of preservative free pred safely once every few days, and everyday during flare ups. Why don't you use a preservative free one every few days to keep the inflammation down. Kind of like just a maintenance dose? I have gone 3-4 days without a drop, then i'll use it just once. Apparantly my doctor is really "not to worried" is how he put it. lol

[No tears in ATL]

My doctor said i can safely use 1 drop of preservative free pred safely once every few days, and everyday during flare ups. Why don't you use a preservative free one every few days to keep the inflammation down. Kind of like just a maintenance dose? I have gone 3-4 days without a drop, then i'll use it just once. Apparantly my doctor is really "not to worried" is how he put it. lol

My pressure went up recently, but not to emergency levels. They wanted me off steroids cold turkey and mentioned me being too young for cataracts. It was hard getting off them, took about 2 weeks to ween off, but maybe he has a point if I am a pressure risk.

[Faith1989]

oh ok.. yeah my pressures havent really gone up, but this is a worry for me as well. I try my best not to have to use them, and try to use other ways of keeping the inflammation down. It is just unfortunate that the other ways take so much longer to work lol my eyes also look veiny, my right eye is also the worse one. It is really weird but my left eye doesn't get inflammed, it is the more normal eye. I am happy the serum is a step in the right direction for you. good luck!

[Guest]

Wow if only I could have said THAT to the tech! Maybe I'll call back hehe. Ok Saag-have you heard about 100% being more effective than 25% or 50%?

I had seen an abstract ages ago that suggested that efficacy of serum drops increase with increasing concentration. However, I've been looking for it to print out for the last few years, and haven't been able to find the darned thing again. However, take the results with a grain of salt... it was a small study, so you never know... the results may not turn out to be true if they someday did a super large study of thousands of patients (will prob. never happen since not enough people on serum drops I bet)

Anyhow, this study is the reason why I chose to try the 100% serum. I started out on 50%, then after 3mo. switched to 100%. I didn't notice any obvious difference in efficacy between the 2 strengths, but I like the way the 100% serum feels on my eyeball better, so I've stuck with it.

Pretty much any study I've seen on serum drops is on the small side... so really, there is still a lot of "educated guessing" going on as far as what is really the best strength, how long are the drops good for in the freezer, how long are they good for in the fridge etc. No-one's fault about the guessing, there just isn't good enough info out there to know for sure what the right answer is.

[buntbean]

In 8+ years I've never had an eye doctor mention these drops. I have MGD and lack of tears and I have to use pres-free tears every 15 min. Do you still use artificial tears if you use blood serum drops?

[No tears in ATL]

In 8+ years I've never had an eye doctor mention these drops. I have MGD and lack of tears and I have to use pres-free tears every 15 min. Do you still use artificial tears if you use blood serum drops?

Most still do. I think one of the moderators here mentioned that the artificial tears can work to hold the serum onto the eye surface longer.

[Faith1989]

I have 100% serum, and still do need artifical tears. The only thing that has helped me use less is Restasis. I actually find the serum a tad drying, and use an AT after I use the serum. But serum is more of a "treatment" drop than a lubricant one. I love mine, but keep that in mind if you get them! Plus Buntbean, I believe you mentioned you have corneal neuralgia and I think serum helps the nerves recover? I don't have this but I have read a lot about it. Someone correct me if I am wrong...

[24yrold Male]

How would I go about getting serum? A friend of a friend (an ophthalmologist I can't go see / won't prescribe to me) said I should really try it - but that it's hard to find a doctor who will prescribe. Any suggestions? Do I just go in to the last doctor I saw, and request it?

[neilw]

Serum %
Sorry I have not responded sooner to the comments about my earlier post (which was that a study I had read said that 25% serum would perform better than 100%, or words to that effect). I originally posted on my mobile phone and it did not seem to me the post had actually worked. So I had not looked at this tread since, until today.

Anyway, the study that I was referring to was from 2004 and, as I did mention, it was only on a small number of eyes and these were dead eyes as this was a laboratory study. It was a comparison of autologous serum against fresh frozen plasma (FFP). It did find that FFP did not perform as well as autologous serum. But it also stated that "an interesting result of the experiments is the finding that only diluted blood preparations (1 : 4) supported cell proliferation well, whereas undiluted ones did not". They further said "This observation is in agreement with the findings of some clinical studies, where a positive influence on corneal wound healing was reported using 1 : 5 diluted serum preparations (Tsubota et al., 1999a; 1999b)."

This was only a small study, it is not on actual patients and it is old. So I think it is interesting but certainly far from conclusive.

Sodium hyaluronate and blood serum
Another interesting one I just read from a Scandinavian publication called "Acta Ophthalmologica", although the study is by some Spanish scientists, was into the use of sodium hyaluronate as the diluting vehicle for autologous serum drops rather than the more traditional use of saline solution.
The results of this study were that sodium hyaluronate led to better outcomes. This substance is used in other eye drops and is supposed to promote better adherence to the ocular surface. This means drops will stay longer in the eye. The study is very recent. They recommend further studies and I do not think there would be any way at present to get serum drops with sodium hyaluronate.

[Dog2012]

I can put something in my eye that Does. Not. Burn.

Got 100% serum today, and it is perfectly comfortable.

For those who have seen me back and forth on this board complaining about how everything stings and leaves me bloodshot, including 50/50 serum-saline, eye drops with HA, Restasis, BAC, backup inflammation from plugs--the WORKS, folks--well, I knew I wasn't imagining this. Apparently I've got the most sensitive eyes ever.

So I tried 100% serum today, no saline diluting this drop, and....aaah. Relief.

Things aren't perfect, but this is a good start. Thought this could be encouraging for those rare individuals like me who claim to be better off without artificial tears and any foreign substances in the eye.


I KEEP TELLING YOU AS WELL>>>DEMEND 100 % serum eye drops ..doctors have interest to promote artificial eye drops it is B.S..
That is all. : )

[Dog2012]

Serum %
Sorry I have not responded sooner to the comments about my earlier post (which was that a study I had read said that 25% serum would perform better than 100%, or words to that effect). I originally posted on my mobile phone and it did not seem to me the post had actually worked. So I had not looked at this tread since, until today.

Anyway, the study that I was referring to was from 2004 and, as I did mention, it was only on a small number of eyes and these were dead eyes as this was a laboratory study. It was a comparison of autologous serum against fresh frozen plasma (FFP). It did find that FFP did not perform as well as autologous serum. But it also stated that "an interesting result of the experiments is the finding that only diluted blood preparations (1 : 4) supported cell proliferation well, whereas undiluted ones did not". They further said "This observation is in agreement with the findings of some clinical studies, where a positive influence on corneal wound healing was reported using 1 : 5 diluted serum preparations (Tsubota et al., 1999a; 1999b)."

This was only a small study, it is not on actual patients and it is old. So I think it is interesting but certainly far from conclusive.

Sodium hyaluronate and blood serum
Another interesting one I just read from a Scandinavian publication called "Acta Ophthalmologica", although the study is by some Spanish scientists, was into the use of sodium hyaluronate as the diluting vehicle for autologous serum drops rather than the more traditional use of saline solution.
The results of this study were that sodium hyaluronate led to better outcomes. This substance is used in other eye drops and is supposed to promote better adherence to the ocular surface. This means drops will stay longer in the eye. The study is very recent. They recommend further studies and I do not think there would be any way at present to get serum drops with sodium hyaluronate.

I totally agree with that..i use HA eye drops first and after serum eye drops..better result ..!!!!

[Dog2012]

How would I go about getting serum? A friend of a friend (an ophthalmologist I can't go see / won't prescribe to me) said I should really try it - but that it's hard to find a doctor who will prescribe. Any suggestions? Do I just go in to the last doctor I saw, and request it?

First of all i would demand that he would give official letter of decline and explain why ??

[Dog2012]

Most still do. I think one of the moderators here mentioned that the artificial tears can work to hold the serum onto the eye surface longer.

I meet so many of them that are really stupid and ignorant and think just about two thinks ..about bottom-line and how not get suit