In vivo comparison of ocular lubricants in patients having reduced tear film breakup times.

Remarkably, few published reports are available demonstrating human in vivo effectiveness of ocular lubricants under controlled study design. The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap between in vitro or animal models and the clinical utility of ocular lubricant applications. Four (4) marketed ocular lubricants were tested in patients with clinically deficient tear film breakup times (BUT). Although each lubricant showed a similar pharmacodynamic pattern of increasing BUT, the lubricants were very different in the degree of increased BUT produced over a two-hour study period.