(P-BT-25) Treatment Satisfaction among Ocular Surface Disease Patients Treated with Autologous Serum: First Israeli Study of Blood Bank-Produced Serum Eye Drops

Background/Case Studies: In 2022, following the notification by the Israeli Ministry of Health assigning supervision and monitoring of autologous serum production to blood banks, the Rambam blood bank laboratory pioneered establishing and implementation of the first blood bank-produced autologous serum program in Israel.

Purpose: To assess satisfaction and refill requests of patients with ocular surface disease (OSD) treated with autologous serum eye drops.

Study

Design/Methods: This retrospective study included the first consecutive OSD patients treated with autologous serum between 01/2022 and 01/2023 at the Blood Bank and Platelet Immunology Laboratories (Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel). Patients received either 20% or 50% autologous serum at a dose of 1 drop 4-8 times a day for a period of 2-3 months (depending on usage). Patients fill out the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire before and after treatment. The improvement in OSDI and refill requests (return rates) were assessed.

Results/Findings: Overall, 135 patients (mean age - 55 years; 51.8% - females) were treated with autologous serum after referral from an eye care specialist. Main indications for treatment were: dry eye disease, ocular graft-versus-host disease and corneal neuralgia. The assessment of the first-year outcomes demonstrated that 5 patients (3.7%) passed away, 14 patients (10.4%) reported no improvement with the treatment, 12 patients were inaccessible or continued follow-up elsewhere (8.9%). To date, 45 (33.6%) have completed three months of therapy and elected to return for a second round of treatment (or more) and 58 (43.2%) are currently in their first round of treatment. Overall patients reported a significant improvement in OSDI (59.84±21.35 to 37.49±15.19, p< 0.001) and 40% of patients experienced a reduction in dry eye severity category (e.g. severe to mild, mild to moderate or mild to none) (Figure 1).

Conclusions: Supervision of the autologous serum treatment by a hospital-based blood bank increases the availability of this therapy for patients suffering from severe OSD. Providing this service in a tertiary care setting allows for efficient multidisciplinary treatment by hematologists, ophthalmologists and blood bank specialists.

Importance of research: we found that hospital-based blood bank production of serum eye drops increases the availability of this efficient therapy that Increases significantly the quality of life of Ocular Surface Disease Patients