[Treatment of dry eye by temporary punctum plug. Comparison with a control group].

Abstract

35 patients with chronic dry eye were treated with punctum plug on one side only. The other side was a control: after simulation dilatation, the patient underwent a simulation insertion. This is an open study in which only the patient ignored the reality of treatment. The study was prospective. 28 females and 7 males were enrolled in this study. The age' average was 53. The follow-up average is 5.3 months. The etiologies were: idiopathic dry eye: 10 cases, Sjögren's syndrome: 11 cases, drug induced dry eye: 6 cases, filamentous keratitis: 4 cases. Other: 4 cases. Enrollment criteria were: functional symptomatology not answering to topical therapy (physiological serum drops) associated with one or more of the following items: positive Rose Bengal staining and/or Schirmer lower than 5 mm in 5 min and/or filamentary keratitis. Subjective improvement is significantly better after closing the two puncta on the same side (77%) than the other side (placebo) (17%) (p less than 0.001). This difference is also demonstrated for the improvement of Rose Bengal staining (p = 0.068) and for Schirmer's test (p = 0.002). These results demonstrated the effectiveness of this therapy versus placebo. Results after closing the 2 puncta on the same side are better than after closing one punctum.