[Lingnan fire needling combined with 0.1% sodium hyaluronate eye drops in the treatment of xerophthalmia: a randomized controlled trial].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Lingnan fire needling combined with artificial tears in the treatment of xerophthalmia. METHODS: A total of 86 xerophthalmia patients were equally and randomly divided into treatment group and control group. The patients of both groups were received treatment with 0.1% sodium hyaluronate eye drops in their eyes 3 times a day, one drop in each eye. In addition, the patients of treatment group also treated by Lingnan fire needling on bilateral Shaoze (SI1), Neichengqi and beside lacrimal puncta once a week. The treatment was conducted for 4 consecutive weeks. Before and after 4 weeks of treatment, the clinical efficacy, visual acuity, intraocular pressure, ocular symptom score, OSDI score, fluorescence staining （FL） score, schemer I, tear menisci height, tear film break-up time (BUT) and eye redness index were recorded and evaluated. RESULTS: After the treatment, self-comparison showed that the symptom score, OSDI score, FL score and eye redness index were significantly decreased (P<0.05), and BUT was notably increased in both groups (P<0.05) in comparison with their own pre-treatment. The tear menisci height in the treatment group was higher than that before the treatment (P<0.05). Comparison between the two groups showed that the symptom score, OSDI score and eye redness index were obviously lower in the treatment group than in the control group (P<0.05), whereas the BUT and tear menisci height were evidently higher (P<0.05). The total effective rate of the treatment group was 84.88% (73/86), better than 76.74% (66/86) of the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Lingnan fire needling combined with 0.1% sodium hyaluronate eye drops is more effective than simple sodium hyaluronate eye drops for xerophthalmia patients, with significant curative effect and no adverse reactions.