Purpose
To compare tear osmolarity of cataract patients before surgery and postoperation and to evaluate early postoperative dry eye.
Methods
After approval by the IRB from the Department of Ophthalmology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, cataract patients were asked to participate in this study from July, 2013 to September 2013. Tear osmolarity, Fluoescent staining of corneal epithelial cells, tear breakup time (BUT), Schimmer I test were tested on surgery eye at six time-point: Before surgery (T0, baseline);1 week (T1), 2 weeks (T2), 4 weeks (T3),8 weeks (T4), 12 weeks (T5) after operation. The grade of dry eye sensation were also recorded at the 6 time-point.
Results
Overall 34 patients (42 eyes) were enrolled in this study, including male 16 and female 18. There were significant difference between the sense of dry, itch and burning before surgery and postoperation (p = 0.015, 0.026, 0.023) (Fig. 1), especially, the dry eye symptoms were more severe during postoperative 4 weeks to 8 weeks than other timepoints compared to the baseline (p = 0.003, 0.008). The BUT and tear osmolarity also showed their significant differences between the timepoints before surgery and postoperation (p = 0.009, 0.001)(Fig. 2A and Fig.2B). Tear osmolarity showed a downtrend from 321.1±20.06 mOsms/L at T0 to 307.5±18.63 mOsms/L at T5, while BUT showed an uptrend from 3.02±0.07s at T0 to 5.83±0.49s at T5. However, BUT shortend during period from T3 to T4, which was similar to the dry eye symptoms. No significant difference was found comparing the corneal fluoescent staining and shimmer I test at different timepoints (p = 0.391, 0.614) (Fig.2C and Fig.2D).
Conclusions
Tear osmolarity for the patients after cataract surgery benefited from the postoperative eyedrops with a significant downtrend. Dry eye symptoms seemed easier to happen during postoperative 4 weeks to 8 weeks for surgery eyes.
Keywords: 486 cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye •
445 cataract •
479 cornea: clinical science