Also known as: lubricating eye drops, ocular lubricant, tear substitute, artificial tear drops
Strongest in Consistency (95). Held back by Recency (33).
Solid mix of RCTs with some methodological gaps.
Some independent replication, statistical precision uneven.
Thousands of participants across the literature.
Studies agree on direction of effect.
Mostly pre-2020 research; updates may be needed.
No per-outcome numbers yet for this one. Each finding's direction and strength is shown in the research below.
Areas where research points to a consistent direction of effect. The strength of evidence is graded; the size of the effect is not quantified.
Preservative-free artificial tears (and lipid-based gels at night) supplement the tear film and are the standard first-line relief for dry, gritty or burning eyes.
A Cochrane meta-analysis of 43 randomized trials (3497 participants) found that over-the-counter artificial tears may be a safe and effective first-line treatment for dry eye syndrome, with most formulations showing broadly similar efficacy (low-certainty evidence).
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that sodium hyaluronate-based artificial tears improved ocular surface staining and symptoms of dry eye syndrome and performed at least as well as non-hyaluronate artificial tears.
Topical omega-3 delivery failed to demonstrate significant benefits compared with artificial tears for dry eye disease.
Adjunctive liposomal tear substitute (cross-linked hyaluronic acid, trehalose, stearylamine) significantly reduced DEQ-5 dry eye symptom scores from 9.28 to 8.00 over 15 days in patients receiving repeated intravitreal anti-VEGF therapy (p < 0.0001), while standard therapy alone produced no significant DEQ-5 change (10.89 to 10.57, p = 0.173).
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