Comprehensive Study on Dry Eye and Ocular Surface Disease Prior and After Cataract Surgery
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2023-07-15
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Ocular surface disease (OSD), particularly dry eye, is one of the most common conditions seen
by ophthalmologists. Dry eye (DE) is a multifactorial disease of the tears and ocular surface
that results in symptoms of discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear instability. DE
significantly reduces quality of life and affects 5-30% of the population. As the proportion
of individuals over age 60 increases because of greater life expectancies, we can anticipate
the number of people with dry eye will also increase, which represents a major challenging
for aging societies, like the Chilean one.
In the last few years clinical research on OSD is being intensely focused on diagnostic
criteria, treatment strategies, methods used in diagnosis and better correlations between
symptoms and clinical test results. All these lines of interest aim to improve the
understanding of alterations and consequences occurring in the ocular surface disorders.
Diagnostic testing is greatly valuable both for the detection of early changes due to DE and
also to grade the severity of surface disease. The most commonly performed tests include the
Schirmer test, tear break up time (TBUT), and ocular surface staining. However, newer
point-of-care diagnostics tests such as tear osmolarity and matrix metalloprotease-9 (MMP-9)
have been shown to have a high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing ocular surface
dysfunction.
Given that ocular surface dysfunction has been shown to have an adverse impact on visual
function and can worsen after surgery, it is critical to identify and address any tear film
and ocular surface abnormalities before cataract surgery. In the setting of preoperative
cataract surgery planning, DE disease and meibomian gland dysfunction can impair critical
refractive measures such as keratometry values worsening surgical outcomes.
To the best of our knowledge there are no ongoing or published studies that have evaluated DE
and OSD as evidenced by either an abnormal tear-film parameter (elevated MMP-9 or abnormal
osmolarity), or corneal surface and meibography evaluation findings (using novel non-invasive
technology) in patients previous and after cataract surgery.