Clinical Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicines for the Treatment of Canine Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca: A Comparison with Cyclosporine A

摘要

Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca (KCS) is a term used to describe a condition of decreased tear production. Another commonly used term to describe this disease is ?dry eye?. Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an efficient treatment for KCS. However, a significant number of canine KCS patients do not respond to CsA treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) in alleviating the clinical signs of KCS in dogs and to compare the efficacy with that of CsA ointment. This study included 19 dogs with KCS previously untreated with CsA. Dogs were randomly assigned to a treatment group and medicated daily for 8 weeks. After that time, the schirmer tear test result was 19.3±1.7 mm min-1 in the TCM group and 21.2±1.2 mm min-1 in the CsA group. The improvement in the clinical signs of inflammation in eyes treated with the TCM was equal to that in eyes treated with CsA (p = 0.58). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the TCM is safe to use and the efficacy was equal to that of CsA. In addition, the method of oral administration was simpler and the treatment was less expensive than CsA ointment for the control of KCS in dogs.