Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the level of ocular pain in patients with dry eye disease (DED) and to correlate the ocular pain with the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score and DED signs.
Methods :
This cross-sectional study included 91 patients with DED. All patients were asked to score their level of ocular pain using a 10-point scale, with 10 indicating the most severe ocular pain. All patients also had a comprehensive ophthalmic assessment including OSDI questionnaire. The correlations between the level of ocular pain and OSDI and clinical parameters were then evaluated.
Results :
85.4% of patients with DED had some degree of ocular pain, with mild pain (scores <5) in 44.9%, moderate pain (scores 5-7) in 33.7% and severe pain (scores >7) in 6.8%. The mean level of ocular pain was 4.1 ± 2.4 with a median of 3. The mean OSDI score was 44.7 ± 22.7. The level of ocular pain had a statistically significant correlation the OSDI score (P=0.01) though with a relatively low coefficient (Rs=0.32). No correlations were found between the level of ocular pain and DED signs.
Conclusions :
Majority of patients with DED have ocular pain which correlates only weakly with the OSDI score. Evaluation of the level of ocular pain should be considered in routine assessment of patients with DED.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.