Assessment of the correlation of the tear breakup time with quality of vision and dry eye symptoms after SMILE surgery

Abstract

Purpose: It is well reported that dry eye symptoms can increase after many refractive surgery procedures. This study aims to provide a clinical understanding of the correlation of fluorescein tear film breakup time (FTBUT) with quality of vision (QoV) and dry eye symptoms following small incision lenticule extraction surgery (SMILE). Methods: Patients electing to have SMILE surgery were subdivided into 2 groups: Group 1 included short preoperative FTBUTs of 3 to 6 seconds (s); Group 2 included long FTBUTs of ≥ 8 s. Uncorrected distance visual acuity, corrected distance visual acuity, manifest refraction, FTBUT, QoV and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaires were recorded 1 and 6 months postoperatively. Results: Thirty-nine subjects were included in each group. There was no significant difference in visual outcomes between the 2 groups at both the 1- and 6-month postoperative assessments. FTBUT remained significantly lower in group 1. Oxford staining was initially higher for group 1 at 1 month (P = 0.007), but there was no significant difference at 6 months (P = 0.180). There was no significant difference in QoV or OSDI scores between the 2 groups at both postoperative visits. Conclusions: Low preoperative FTBUT (3–6 s) does not appear to negatively affect postoperative visual outcomes or results in a greater likelihood of dry eye symptoms and poor ocular surface compared to eyes with a longer preoperative FTBUT. These results suggest that a low preoperative FTBUT does not necessarily increase the likelihood of poor visual acuity, dry eyes symptoms, or poor ocular surface outcomes following SMILE surgery.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-021-02086-4
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Optometry
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Optometry & Vision Science Research Group (OVSRG)
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Optometry > Vision, Hearing and Language
College of Health & Life Sciences
Additional Information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Dry eye,Fluorescein tear film breakup time (FTBUT),Ocular surface disease index (OSDI),Quality of vision (QOV),Small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE),Ophthalmology
Publication ISSN: 1573-2630
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2024 08:35
Date Deposited: 08 Nov 2021 12:29
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2021-10-28
Published Online Date: 2021-10-28
Accepted Date: 2021-10-03
Authors: Palme, Christoph
Mulrine, Fiona
McNeely, Richard N.
Steger, Bernhard
Naroo, Shehzad A. (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-6373-7187)
Moore, Jonathan E.

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