title: Posology, efficacy, and safety of epidermal growth factor eye drops in 305 patients: logistic regression and group-wise odds of published data.
abstract: The aim of this article is to investigate clinical research on indications, posology, efficacy, and safety of epidermal growth factor (EGF) eye drops in the treatment of some human corneal disorders. Methods used include systematic search and selection of series of cases and clinical trials in Medline database up to January 2012, kappa index (K) to validate retrieval information, cumulative Mantel-Haenszel-stratified meta-analysis, 2×2 contingency table of randomized EGF-vehicle-controlled treated groups, and statistical program SPSSv12. Our results indicate that EGF eye drops appear to be a very effective treatment of acute heterogeneous corneal diseases, without significant adverse effects, with a 86.8% clinical efficacy reported by authors, a 98% (P<0.05) probabilistic expected efficacy, and 51.3 (17.4-148.7 confidence interval 95%; P<0.05) odds ratio EGF/vehicle. However, clinical trials are scarce, with low sample sizes and serious inconsistencies in EGF posology. EGF eye drops (50-1,000 ng, 2-3 times/day) could be a useful treatment for promoting postoperative refractive surgery, reversing cases of keratopathy secondary to systematic EGF receptor inhibitors, diabetic keratopathy, and other corneal and conjunctival disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, FCCSYD (Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y del Deporte), University of Zaragoza, Spain. mlou@unizar.es
authors.forename: José Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lou-Bonafonte
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bonafonte-Marquez
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonafonte-Royo
authors.forename: Pedro A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Martínez-Carpio
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D003315:Cornea / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D009883:Ophthalmic Solutions; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor