Abstract

Objective: To test the efficacy of Itone herbal eye drops compared to Hylo eye drops in increasing the tear film stability of patients with mild to moderate cases of Keratoconus.
Methodology: This quasi-experimental study was conducted at the Teaching Hospital, University of Lahore from April to August 2025. Purposive sampling was used to select 38 patients (76 eyes) with mild to moderate severity of keratoconus (K readings: 48–54 D) aged 15–35 years. Patients with severe keratoconus, other ocular/systemic pathology, or undergone ocular surgery previously or were under medication that influences the tear film were excluded. The sample was split into two groups (one was treated with Hylo eyedrops, and another with Itone herbal eyedrops), both administered three times a day. The data were analyzed by SPSS 26 with the help of the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests.
Results: Out of the 38 participants, 21 (55.3%) were male and 17 (44.7) were female, with a mean age of 26±4.26 years (range: 18-34 years). Within the Itone group, the mean Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score dropped to 12.29±1.39 (range: 10.00-18.00) with two weeks of treatment as compared to the baseline level of 30.13 and 2.60 (range: 25.00-36.00) (p

Key words: Keratoconus, tear film, tear break up time, ocular surface disease index, artificial tears.