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.