Abstract
Purpose :
Neuropathic corneal pain (NCP) creates an unpleasant experience that includes emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. Quality of life (QoL) in patients with NCP can be significantly diminished due to the high impact of this condition on patients' daily activities. This study was designed to evaluate the differences in QoL of NCP patients compared with patients with dry eye disease (DED) utilizing a novel validated quantitative pain questionnaire, the Ocular Pain Assessment Survey (OPAS).
Methods :
An IRB-approved, cross-sectional study was conducted at the New England Eye Center/Tufts Medical Center. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of NCP or DED who had completed the OPAS questionnaire were included. Comparison of the impact on QoL questions between the two groups was performed using Student’s T-test to determine differences among groups. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Results :
One hundred and nineteen patients with NCP and forty-three patients with DED were included in this study. Mean age for NCP and DED was 56.2±16.0 and 56.3±15.7 years (p=0.966), male to female ratio was 27:92 and 8:35 respectively. NCP patients reported that they spent more time thinking about their eye pain compared with DED patients (60.2% vs. 26.5% of the time, p<0.001), On a scale from 0 to 10, NCP patients scored higher describing how much their eye pain adversely interfere with them enjoying life and their relations with other people (5.1 vs. 2.2, p<0.002), with their general activity (3.7 vs. 2.1, p=0.002), mood (5.4 vs. 2.6, p<0.001), sleep (3.7 vs. 2.0, p=0.003), reading and/or computer use (6.4 vs. 3.2, p<0.001) compared to DED patients.
Conclusions :
Corneal pain has a significantly higher negative impact on QoL in patients with NCP compared to patients with DED. This impact may play a role in the emotional and behavioral components of NCP. The OPAS questionnaire may serve as a quantitative tool for QoL assessment in patients with NCP.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.