Objective On the basis of sodium hyaluronate eye drops

to observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture on dry eye and explore the effect mechanism of ocular surface protection. Methods A total of 80 patients with dry eye were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group

40 cases in each group. The control group was treated with routine cleaning of eyelid margin

hot compress of eyes with warm towel

and external application of sodium hyaluronate eye drops for 5 weeks. On the basis of the treatment as the control group

the observation group was treated with acupuncture at Jingming（BL 1）

Cuanzhu（BL 2）

Chengqi（ST 1）

Hegu（LI 4）

Zusanli（ST 36）

Sanyinjiao（SP 6）

etc.

once a day

6 times a week for 5 weeks（30 times totally）. Before and after treatment

SchirmerⅠtest（SⅠT）

breaking up time（BUT）

corneal fluorescent（FL） score

ocular surface disease index（OSDI） score

and the contents of IL-6 and TNF-αin tears were evaluated and the therapeutic effect was compared between the two groups. Results Compared with before treatment

SⅠT and BUT after treatment in the observation group were prolonged（P<0.05）

the scores of FL and OSDI and the contents of IL-6 and TNF-α in tears were decreased（P<0.05）. After treatment

SⅠT and BUT in the observation group were longer than the control group（P<0.05）

and the scores of FL and OSDI and the contents of IL-6 and TNF-α in tears in the observation group were lower than the control group（P<0.05）. The total effective rate in the observation group was 87.5%（35/40）

which was higher than 45.0%（18/40） in the control group（P<0.05）.Conclusion On the basis of sodium hyaluronate eye drops

acupuncture could improve the clinical symptoms of dry eye

promote the secretion of tears

prolong the tear film breaking up time

and reduce corneal damage

and effect mechanism may be related to the reduction of inflammatory response.