Dexamethasone Intracanalicular Insert for Clinically Significant Aqueous-Deficient Dry Eye: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose: To evaluate a commercially available dexamethasone intracanalicular insert to treat dry eye. Design: Single-center, double-masked randomized controlled trial. Participants: Patients with clinically significant aqueous-deficient dry eye (combined ocular surface staining score, ≥ 3 [0–12]; corneal fluorescein staining score, ≥ 2 [0–6]; and Schirmer's wetting, < 10 mm at 5 minutes in both eyes) with symptoms (dryness, eye discomfort, or visual fatigue, ≥ 30 [0–100]) despite treatment with at least 1 prescription drop and deemed candidates for topical steroid therapy. Methods: Seventy-five adult patients were enrolled. A 1:1 randomization sequence was used to determine which eye of each patient would receive the treatment (dexamethasone 0.4-mg intracanalicular insert with 30-day elution time) or sham (collagen plug). The fellow eye received the opposite treatment. Patients were masked to treatment assignment. Follow-up visits (at weeks 2, 4, and 6) were performed by a masked investigator. Main Outcome Measures: Dry eye parameters and patient symptoms were used for efficacy, and intraocular pressure (IOP) was used for safety assessment. Results: The severity of dry eye was comparable between the treatment arms (fellow eyes) at baseline. Eyes that received the dexamethasone insert showed significantly less corneal staining at week 4 (mean difference [MD], −0.55; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.91 to −0.19) and conjunctival staining at week 4 (MD, −0.68; 95% CI, −1.05 to −0.30) and week 6 (MD, −0.34; 95% CI, −0.65 to −0.02). Schirmer's wetting was comparable between the two treatment arms. Although the patients reported less dryness in eyes that received the insert at week 4 (MD, −5.5; 95% CI, −11.4 to 0.4), no statistically significant differences were found in any patient-reported symptoms. At week 4, dexamethasone-treated eyes were more likely to show an IOP increase (by 5–10 mmHg; 9 eyes vs. 1 eye; relative risk, 9.00; 95% CI, 1.14–71.0). All cases of increased IOP were managed with short-term topical β-blockers and subsided. Conclusions: The dexamethasone intracanalicular insert may be considered a dropless dual treatment for clinically significant aqueous-deficient dry eye when topical steroid treatment is deemed appropriate. Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.