PREVALENCE OF DRY EYES FOLLOWING CATARACT SURGERY BY PHACOEMULSIFICATION: A STUDY AT COMBINED MILITARY HOSPITAL, GUJRANWALA

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence and severity of dry eye disease following cataract surgery and to compare postoperative ocular surface outcomes between manual small incision cataract surgery and phacoemulsification. Methods: It was a prospective comparative study that took place at The Combined Military Hospital Gujranwala between January and July of 2024 and involved 98 patients undergoing cataract surgery where 49 were in the surgical group of each type. Patients who had dry eye before were excluded. Schirmer Test-1, tear film break-up time, and the Ocular Surface Disease Index questionnaire were used to evaluate the state of the eye in relation to the condition of the blinking eye a month and 3 months after the operation. The severity of dry eye was assessed using DEWS. They were compared through independent samples t-test and Chi-square test which used p-value less than 0.05 as statistically significant. Results: Baseline demographic and ocular surface parameters were comparable between groups. The phacoemulsification group demonstrated significantly shorter mean surgical duration (15.2 ± 3.1 minutes vs. 22.8 ± 4.6 minutes) and reduced microscope light exposure time (12.4 ± 2.6 minutes vs. 18.9 ± 3.8 minutes; p < 0.001). Postoperatively, phacoemulsification patients showed significantly higher Schirmer’s Test-1 values and longer tear film break-up times at all follow-up intervals (p < 0.01). Mean OSDI scores were consistently lower in the phacoemulsification group, including at 3 months (9.6 ± 4.7 vs. 14.9 ± 5.4; p < 0.001). At three months, dry eye prevalence was significantly higher following SICS (36.7%) compared to phacoemulsification (14.3%; p = 0.006).

Conclusion: Phacoemulsification has been linked with very low rates of occurrence and severity of post-operative dry eye disease when compared to small incision cataract surgery manually performed. These results support the significance of the choice of surgical techniques to reduce postoperative dry eye and improve patient-reported outcome after cataract surgery.