Allergic Conjunctivitis: Cold Compress Helps Other Treatments
-
Allergic conjunctivitis signs were reduced most effectively by a cold compress (CC) combined with artificial tears (ATs) or epinastine hydrochloride (EH) drops, according to a randomized, masked clinical trial of 18 individuals allergic to grass pollen. A total of 18 participants were exposed to grass pollen in an environmental chamber to cause an ocular allergic reaction. They received ATs, CC for 5 minutes, ATs and CC combined, or no treatment randomly at each separate visit. Of those 18 participants, 11 also received either EH drops alone or with CC in random order or the same volume of saline drops. EH is a dual-action antihistamine–mast cell stabilizer.
-
@kevin The main outcome measures were bulbar conjunctival hyperemia, ocular surface temperature, and ocular symptoms; these were measured at baseline and every 10 minutes after treatment for 1 hour. Symptoms were reduced more by all treatments than no treatment (P < .001), but all nonpharmaceutical treatments failed to return global ocular symptom scores to baseline levels within 1 hour after antigen exposure (no treatment, 58.6% relative return to baseline; CC, 71.6%; ATs, 84.8%; and ATs plus CC, 86.9%; P < .001). Hyperemia was reduced more by ATs combined with CC than other treatments (P < .05). No treatment reduced hyperemia to baseline levels within 60 minutes (no treatment, 16.5% relative return to baseline; CC, 57.9%; ATs, 73.3%; and ATs plus CC, 76.5%; P < .001), but they all improved hyperemia both nasally and temporally significantly more compared with no treatment (P < .05).