Laser Acupuncture Improves Tear Film Stability in Patients with Dry Eye Disease: A Two-Center Randomized-Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of laser acupuncture (LA) therapy in patients with dry eye disease (DED). Design: A two-center randomized controlled trial. Settings/Location: The Department of Ophthalmology, Chinese Medicine at the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and the Sunming Eye Clinic in South Taiwan. Subjects: Fifty-nine participants ages 20 to 65 years were enrolled and randomly assigned to the experimental group (LA plus conventional treatment) or the sham control group (LA without laser output plus conventional treatment). Interventions: Subjects underwent LA treatment three times a week for 12 weeks. The subjects in the experimental group sequentially received 0.375 J of energy at each of the following acupoints: BL2, TE23, ST2, LI4, ST36, and GB37. Subjects in the control group received a sham LA treatment, without any laser output. Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measure was ocular surface disease index (OSDI). The secondary outcome measures included tear film breakup time (TFBUT), Schirmer-I test finding, and visual analog scale (VAS) score. Results: At 4 and 12 weeks after the first visit, the experimental group showed significant improvement of dry eye symptoms as measured by OSDI, TFBUT, Shirmer-I test, and VAS. Compared with the control group, the OSDI (7.23, p = 0.001) and TFBUT (−1.78, p = 0.001) significantly improved in the experimental group at 12 weeks of treatment. Conclusions: LA improved the symptoms and tear stability related to DED in conjunction with conventional treatment. The authors suggest that LA be considered a complementary therapy for DED when conventional treatment does not provide satisfactory effects. Trial Registration: Identifier NCT03204903.

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Acupuncture modulates development of myopia by reducing NLRP3 inflammasome activation via the dopamine-D1R signaling pathway

“…36,37,44 Acupuncture at LI4 is also commonly used in various eye diseases. 45,46 In this study, we administered acupuncture at these two traditional acupuncture point locations in combination to evaluate the efficacy against myopia. Some reports have mentioned the use of electroacupuncture (EA) to treat myopia.…”

Management of Dry Eye Disease in Asia: A Review

“…Acupuncture regulates the autoregulatory and immunological systems through expanding vascularity and augmenting neuropeptides [107]. During DED therapy, it ameliorates tear film instability via enhanced tear protein production, modulation of hormone concentrations and lacrimal gland metabolites, enhancement of acetylcholine content in the lacrimal gland, modulation of angioactive intestinal peptides, and a decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines in the ocular surface [108,109]. Laser acupuncture is a fusion of Chinese medicine's pathway and acupoint theory with modern laser therapy techniques.…”

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