Azusa Uehara¹*, Manabu Nozaki¹ and Hiroshi Fujishima²

¹Research and Development Department, Healthcare Division, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan
²Department of Ophthalmology, Tsurumi University School of Dental Medicine, Yokohama, Japan

*Corresponding Author: Azusa Uehara, Research and Development Department, Healthcare Division, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan.

Received: March 16, 2023; Published: April 14, 2023

Abstract

Purpose: Eye washing with artificial tears using over-the-counter (OTC) eyewash is a widespread method for preventing allergic conjunctival disease. More specifically, OTC eyewash is widely used to remove foreign matter from the surface of the eye and is expected to neutralise allergic symptomology in the eye, although confirmatory evidence is missing. While there are many methods for eye washing, only a handful of reports have examined the efficacy of each method to date. Within this context, our study aimed to compare the effects of cup-type and eye drop-type eyewash on the efficacy of foreign matter removal. 

Methods: Insoluble and soluble types of pseudo-foreign matter, imitating PM_2.5 and pollen, were instilled into the eyes of rabbits and humans for the verification tests conducted herein. After the pseudo-foreign matter was instilled, eye washing was performed with both methods, and the residual amount of foreign matter associated with each methodology was measured. 

Results: In the washing test using insoluble foreign matter in rabbits, the concentration of foreign matter in the recovered solution was statistically significantly lower in the eye washing groups than in the non-eye washing group, regardless of the size of the foreign matter. When applying the eye drop-type eyewash, the mean foreign matter concentration decreased as the volume of the drops increased. In the washing test using water-soluble foreign matter conducted in humans, the percentage of residual foreign matter after washing the anterior eye decreased as the volume of the eye drops was increased in the eye drop-type eyewash group. This was similar to the test conducted with insoluble foreign matter in rabbits; however, in the lower eyelid conjunctiva, the residual rate was statistically significantly lower in the cup-type eye washing group than in the six eye drop washing group (38.0% ± 30.8% and 73.0% ± 33.6%).

Conclusion: These results indicate that cup-type eyewash is more effective than eye drops in removing foreign matter from the conjunctiva of the lower eyelid in humans.  Pending confirmation in future research, these results suggest that cup-type eyewash is highly effective in removing foreign matter regardless of particle size.

 Keywords: Cup-type Eyewash; Drop-type Eyewash; Foreign Matter Removal; Over-the-counter Drugs; PM_2.5; Pollen

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Citation

Citation: Azusa Uehara., et al. “Comparison of the Foreign Matter Removal Effect of Different Over-the counter Eye Washing Methods".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 6.5 (2023): 11-20.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Azusa Uehara., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.