Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of punctum plug insertion on tear and dynamic visual function in dry eye patients with short break-up time (s-BUT) of the tears.
Methods: A prospective comparative case series design was used. Twenty-seven eyes of 27 dry eye patients with a s-BUT seen at Keio University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, were studied. Functional visual acuity (FVA) measurements, tear function examinations and ocular surface evaluations including Schirmer test, tear break-up time, fluorescein and Rose Bengal vital staining scores were performed before and 1 month after insertion of punctum plugs (PP) in dry eye patients with s-BUT. Degree of satisfaction with the PP treatment was also graded.
Results: Nineteen out of 27 eyes (70.4%) showed a satisfactory outcome with the PP treatment because of decreased subjective dry eye symptoms. On the other hand, six out of eight eyes with an unsatisfactory outcome had epiphora. The visual maintenance ratio value was observed to significantly increase from 0.87 +/- 0.09 to 0.91 +/- 0.07 in eyes with no epiphora, whereas the visual maintenance ratio value significantly decreased from 0.98 +/- 0.10 to 0.86 +/- 0.13 in the group of eyes with epiphora after PP treatment. (p < 0.05) Likewise, FVA significantly improved after PP insertion in the group with no epiphora and decreased in eyes with epiphora. Visual acuity in the conventional Landolt visual testing remained significantly unchanged in both group of eyes with or without epiphora.
Conclusions: FVA was useful in assessing and quantifying vision related symptomatology in s-BUT type of dry eye treated with PP occlusion.