EvoTears – LipoNit: comparison of two lipid-containing supplements

Purpose:

Rewetting solutions and eye sprays are getting more popular recently and are available in many different compositions. They promise to help against symptoms of dry eyes. This study tries to determine if the eye drops EvoTears, which contains lipids, helps better against symptoms of dry eyes as the liposomal eye spray LipoNit.

Material and Methods:

Both preparations were tested on a total of 23 subjects (11 female, 12 male, age 33 years ± 13.8 years, 23 – 60 years). In a single-blinded, balanced, randomized and prospective cross- over study, according to the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, the subjective sensation as well as objective findings of dry eye were determined and evaluated in each case before dispensing and after a one-week application of the respective preparation. For the subjective determination the OSDI questionnaire was used. Objectively, lipid layer thickness was determined and evaluated using Polaris device (BON), as well as tear meniscus height and noninvasive tear film break-up using Oculus Keratograph. After one week of application of the respective preparations, the subjective and objective findings before and after application were compared. Furthermore, in an additional questionnaire, each subject was able to assign points for the simplicity of application as well as points for the subjective improvement of dry eyes of both preparations.

Results:

The difference of the findings in both products in between the week of usage were 0 in all four findings (OSDI, NIKBUT, meniscus height, lipid layer thickness). This means that both of the investigated Liquids have more or less the same impact on dry eyes. Further, this study statistically proves that EvoTears significantly reduces the OSDI Score after using (p-value 0,0403). There is a tendency that EvoTears also improves the thickness of the lipid layer, although it is almost statistically significant (p-value 0,0708). All the other findings were statistically not significant. Most of the participants felt the handling of LipoNit much easier compared to EvoTears. However, EvoTears had a slightly bigger impact on subjective feeling.

Conclusion:

In this study, EvoTears and LipoNit were found to have similar effects on dry eye. A statistically significant difference existed only in the OSDI questionnaire (decrease OSDI score) in combination with EvoTears. In principle, the results obtained could be attributed to the short application period of one week, the small number of subjects or a non-compliance. In addition, only participants with moderate dry eyes were examined. Despite all this, the subjective dry eye symptoms decreased with both agents.