AIM: To study the clinical effects of ganciclovir eye gel combined with spleen ammonia peptide oral freeze-dried powder in the treatment of epithelial herpes simplex keratitis(HSK).

METHODS: Totally 70 cases(70 eyes)with HSK diagnosed in Ophthalmology Department of our hospital from January 2015 to June 2016 were enrolled. All the patients were divided into control group and experimental group randomly. Control group was treated by ganciclovir eye gel, 6 times per day; while experimental group was treated by ganciclovir eye gel combined with spleen ammonia peptide oral freeze-dried powder, administered by cool white boiling water at daily bedtime, 2 milligram of every time. All patients were treated for 30d. Then the therapeutic effects of two groups, including the cure rate, time of corneal ulcer healing, pain relief, photophobia disappeared, vision improvement and recurrence rate were compared and analyzed.

RESULTS: The therapeutic effects of experimental group was better than the control group. The cure rate was 80% for experimental group and 51% for control group. The clinical cure rate in experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group(P<0.05). The time for corneal ulcer healing and pain relief and photophobia disappeared in experimental group was significantly shorter than that for the control group(P<0.05). The recurrence rate in the 1-year follow-up was 14% for experimental group and 67% for control group. The clinical recurrence rate in experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The application of ganciclovir eye gel combined with spleen ammonia peptide oral freeze-dried powder in epithelial herpes simplex keratitis, which improves visual acuity, the cure rate and shortens the course of disease and reduces the recurrence rate, is the ideal treatment of epithelial herpes simplex keratitis at present.