ABSTRACT
AIM:To compare the efficacy of three types of eye care (artificial tear, moist chamber and polyethylene covers) for preventing exposure keratopathy in intensive care patients.METHODS: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients were randomly divided to three treatment groups, including artificial tear group(29 cases), moist chamber group (27 cases) and polyethylene covers group (28 cases). Patients in artificial tear group received two drops of carboxymethylcellulose dropped to each eye every 2 hours. The moist chamber and polyethylene covers groups were changed every 12 hours or as needed if they became unclean or torn. Corneal fluorescein stain was performed daily.RESULTS:No one in the polyethylene covers group and one case(4%) in the moist chamber group had exposure keratopathy compared to 8 cases (28%) in the artificial tear group. There were statistical significance differences between both artificial tear group and moist chamber group (P=0.02), artificial tear group and polyethylene covers group (P=0.003). Everyday time of eye care in the artificial tear group, the moist chamber group and the polyethylene covers group was respectively 26.69±2.39, 35.33±2.63 and 7.48±0.87 minutes. Everyday time of eye care in the polyethylene covers group was statistically more time-saving than that in the artificial tear group (P<0.01) and the moist chamber group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Polyethylene covers are more effective and time-saving in reducing the incidence of corneal damage in intensive care patients.