Please visit us at the new updated DryEyeZone site ..read more

Who is most likely to get dry eye after cataract surgery? In this study, they looked at patients who underwent cataract surgery. If their OSDI scores were greater than 12 three months after surgery, they deemed them as having persistent dry eye symptoms.  The point of the study was to analyze what was different about those patients at the time of surgery and soon after: is it possible to predict who will have persistent dry eye after cataract surgery? One-third (31 of 96) of the patients had persistent dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery. Ouch! Risk factors were determined to ..read more

These numbers are unsurprising to anyone who knows people with severe chronic GvHD (when they develop severe dry eye, among other things, following a bone marrow transplant for example), but nonetheless impressive: 97% of patients had improvement in quality of life 92% of patients continued to use sclerals (mean follow-up time was more than 1.5 years) Corneal damage, vision and quality of life were all assessed 2 months after starting and all improved Bone Marrow Transplant. 2017 Jun;52(6):878-882. doi: 10.1038/bmt.2017.9. Epub 2017 Feb 20. Scleral lenses for severe chronic GvHD-related k ..read more

Interesting case report on some folks with severe corneal disease. They clearly had to stay on it to get any kind of continued benefits, but those benefits sound pretty dramatic: decreased pain, burning, irritation and FBS improved vision healing of diffuse keratitis (after several months treatment) Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Mar;97(10):e9935. Evaluation of a new matrix regenerating agent in patients with Sjögren syndrome and superficial ulcerative keratitis resistant to conventional therapy: A report of 3 cases. Fajnkuchen F1,2, Barritault D3, Giocanti-Aurégan A1,4.  Abstract RATIONAL ..read more

I enjoyed reading this study titled "Exploring topical anti-glaucoma medication effects on the ocular surface in the context of the current understanding of dry eye" (scroll down for the abstract) On the face of it, it is all about glaucoma drops and dry eye. But don't be fooled by the absence of the word "preservative" in the text of the abstract. I checked with the authors to verify a few details because the complete text had not yet been released. As suspected, the paper is really mostly about the known and despised toxic effects of the preservative benzalkonium chloride (BAK), also known ..read more

This is a song sheet I can sing from, for sure! We NEVER see dry eye studies about kids! Participants in this study were Japanese kids aged 10-19. Asians in general, and the Japanese in particular, are known to have higher rates of dry eye than caucasians, and the 21.7% overall prevalence shown in this study is closely similar to the results from another study in a similar age group done ten years ago by one of the participants in the present study - thank you, Dr Ichino! But I find it very worrying thing is that we actually have nothing to compare these numbers to on this side of the water ..read more

This abstract was... depressing. And not just because I really don't enjoy reading about animal testing. It's that while reading all the ways in which sleep deprivation compromises tear function, I can't help thinking of all those whose sleep deprivation is caused by compromised tear function, whether because they're setting their alarm to get up and add ointment to their eyes to prevent erosions, or the pain factor in general, or the stress from chronic eye pain. Talk about a vicious circle. I guess this is part of why I'm such a fan of taping eyelids down in severe cases. Lube al ..read more

As an EyePrintPro scleral lens user (going on 4 years now!) this abstract caught my eye. I looked it up to confirm - polyvinylsiloxane is the material used for taking impressions for EyePrintPro  and yes, this study shows it is the better method (less redness, less staining, fewer complications). This is the stuff I have always affectionately referred to as "high tech blue goo". Eye Contact Lens. 2018 Feb 28. doi: 10.1097/ICL.0000000000000496. [Epub ahead of print] Ocular Impression-Taking-Which Material Is Best? Turner JM1, Purslow C, Murphy PJ. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and ..read more

I think this is the most dramatically worded study I've seen on cataract surgery and dry eye. Way to go Dr Galor! It's definitely making me want to go back and re-read some others to remind myself what the numbers were. Nothing in this surprises me particularly, but it's really something to see it in print. I'm very pleased to see they used a survey that includes the word burning - that's one of the most common and crippling symptoms for those with severe symptoms, but it is omitted way too often in symptom surveys, as  TFOS DEWS II epidemiology report points out. And I love that the pa ..read more

Bit of a summary of what pollution means for dry eye symptoms. Ocul Surf. 2018 Mar 3. pii: S1542-0124(17)30224-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2018.03.001. [Epub ahead of print] Effects of environment pollution on the ocular surface. Jung SJ1, Mehta J2, Tong L3. Abstract The twenty-first century is fraught with dangers like climate change and pollution, which impacts human health and mortality. As levels of pollution increase, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular ailments become more prevalent. Less understood are the eye-related complaints, which are commonly associated with incre ..read more