Study: BSLPD to treat DES in cGVHD

Anybody know if there are any scientific journals dedicated to the blogosphere yet? If so, remind me to do a search and see whether there are any published studies examining the effect of overuse of acronyms in subject lines on click-through rates in blogs. (And then maybe the impact on reader drop-out rates when five or more prepositional phrases are used in a row in the opening sentence of a blog entry.)

Meanwhile, our good friends at the Boston Foundation for Sight have published another study. About use of sclerals in treating dry eye in chronic graft-versus-host-disease patients.

For those of you skeptics (I'm talking to MDs here, primarily) who stubbornly adhere to the antiquated notion that scleral lenses and dry eye do not belong in the same sentence, and who would perhaps rather condemn these patients to tarsorrhaphy, Lacrilube and chronic misery, this one's for you.

Boston Scleral Lens Prosthetic Device for Treatment of Severe Dry Eye in Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease.
Jacobs DS, Rosenthal P.
Cornea. 2007 Dec;26(10):1195-1199

PURPOSE:: To determine if the Boston Scleral Lens Prosthetic Device (BSLPD) reduces symptoms and improves quality of life in patients with severe dry eye from chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD).

METHODS:: This is a noncomparative interventional case series reporting 33 consecutive patients with severe dry eye from cGvHD, unresponsive to conventional therapy, who were fitted with the BSLPD. A patient survey was undertaken after lenses were dispensed and worn regarding the effect of scleral lens wear on their symptoms, quality of life, and activities of daily living. The patient population was characterized from a retrospective chart review. Survey data were tabulated.

RESULTS:: BSLPD wear resulted in improvement in pain, photophobia, and general quality of life in nearly all patients, with more than half reporting the highest improvement level for pain (52%) and photophobia (63%), and more than two thirds (73%) reporting the highest improvement level for quality of life. There was improvement in reading and driving in >90% of those who reported previous compromise, with >60% reporting the highest improvement level for each of these activities.

CONCLUSIONS:: The BSLPD mitigates symptoms and improves quality of life in patients with severe dry eye from cGHvD.