Abstract
Purpose :
Patients with epiphora often report vision-related complaints that impair quality of life. However, it remains unclear if there is an increase in prevalence of visual comorbidities and reduced visual acuity in patients with epiphora. We aimed to evaluate visual comorbidity prevalence as well as visual acuities among people affected by epiphora.
Methods :
In this cross-sectional cohort study, patients presenting to a tertiary oculoplastics clinic were surveyed for epiphora-related quality of life. They were classified into two groups: those presenting with epiphora and those without. Patients with visual disturbance were defined as those who responded affirmatively to the question, “Do you experience tearing that leads to blurry vision?”. Patients with epiphora were further classified as obstructive or non-obstructive epiphora based on syringing results. Patients presenting for post-operative care or with a history of ocular or orbital trauma were excluded from analysis. Data regarding visual comorbidities was collected. Outcomes included presence of ≥1 active visual comorbidity, and LogMAR acuity in the worse eye. Wilcoxon and chi-square tests were used for statistical analyses.
Results :
The final sample included 205 patients, 128 presented with active epiphora (mean age 66 years, 40% male) and 77 did not (mean age 62 years, 22% male). There were 47 epiphora patients with visual disturbance and 81 without. There was a significantly higher prevalence of ≥1 visual comorbidity in epiphora patients (36.7%) compared to that of controls (16.9%, p=0.002). Mean LogMAR did not differ between epiphora and control patients (0.26±0.43 and 0.19±0.30, p=0.14). Visual comorbidity prevalence significantly differed between epiphora patients with and without visual disturbance (53.2% and 27.2%, p=0.003), while LogMAR did not (0.28±0.44 and 0.26±0.44, p=0.84). Additionally, there was no significant difference in prevalence of non-obstructive epiphora between epiphora patients with and without visual disturbance (59.6% and 43.2%, p=0.07).
Conclusions :
Our results are consistent with our hypothesis that patients with epiphora and epiphora-related visual disturbance show higher prevalence of visual comorbidity than their respective counterparts. Interestingly, there was no difference in LogMAR between epiphora patients with and without visual disturbance, despite the former reporting concerns for blurred vision.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.