Abstract
Purpose :
To assess the effects of warm compress (WC) on tear film lipid layer thickness in population with dry eye complain following corneal refractive surgeries.
Methods :
Thirty-seven eyes of 37 participants (age 29.5±6.3 years, 14 male and 23 female), with more than 2 years of dry eye complain following corneal refractive surgeries were enrolled. Among them, 25 underwent femtosecond laser small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE), the remining12 underwent laser-assisted subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK). Tear film lipid layer thickness (TFLLT), including the minimal (Min-TFLLT), maximal (Max-TFLLT), average values (Ave-TFLLT) and standard deviation of TFLLT (TFLLT-Std), total blink rate (TBR) and partial blink rate (PBR) were evaluated using an interferometer (Lipiview, TearScience Inc), before and at 5 minutes after WC. Tear film break-up time (TFBUT) was also assessed. WC was performed, using a spontaneous heating eye mask (Jiangxi Zhenshiming Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), for 20 minutes. The mean WC temperature was 40.7 degrees Celsius. Cut off P values were <0.05.
Results :
After WC, the mean values of Min-TFLLT, Max-TFLLT and Ave-TFLLT were 70.43±26.60nm, 91.00±13.81nm and 81.89±19.30nm, respectively, which increased significantly (P<0.001, P=0.023, P<0.001, respectively) when compared with the original ones (51.70±16.28nm, 82.87±19.62nm and 63.08 ±17.37nm, respectively). The values of PBR decreased from 0.67 ±0.33 to 0.50 ±0.36 (P=0.002), meanwhile the mean value of TFBUT increased from 5.4 ±2.2s to 6.4±2.2s, which is statistically significant (P<0.001). However, TBR and TFLLT-Std remain unchanged (P=0.505 and P=0.109, respectively).
Conclusions :
Warm compress may temporarily improve tear film stability. The thickened TFLLT and elevated incomplete blink rate after WC may be the probable causes. Further studies would be needed to determine the underlying mechanisms.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.