Comparative study of stenting and ostium packing in Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy for Primary Acquired Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction

Clinical outcomes of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy without preserving mucosal flaps in combination with silicone stent and steroid-soaked gelfoam

PURPOSE

To report clinical outcomes of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (En-DCR) combined with stenting and without preserving the nasal and lacrimal mucosal flaps.

METHODS

In this prospective interventional case series, patients with primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction who were candidates for En-DCR were enrolled. Patients with a known history of previous DCR, sinus surgery, rhinoplasty, nasal trauma, nasal anomaly, canalicular or punctal occlusion, or less than one year of follow-up were excluded. All patients underwent En-DCR and stenting followed by ostial packing using Gelfoam soaked with dexamethasone. The patients were assessed preoperatively, on the first postoperative day, after 2 weeks, 3 months, and 1 year. Postoperative outcomes were anatomical and functional success, defined as patent irrigation test and resolution of epiphora, respectively. The nasolacrimal drainage system was evaluated anatomically and functionally during the follow-up period.

RESULTS

Eighty-three patients with a mean age of 54.36±15.27 years were enrolled. Of these, 61 patients (73.5%) were women. The mean duration of follow-up was 20.7±6.9 months. Anatomical success was achieved in all patients and remained stable during the study duration and at 1 year. Functional failure leading to epiphora was observed in 1 patient 3 months after surgery and resolved after re-DCR at year 1. Preoperative tenderness and purulent reflux were observed in 12%, 33.7% of which completely resolved postoperatively. Moderate and severe hemorrhage was observed in 12 (14.5%) and 2 (2.4%) patients, respectively.

CONCLUSION

En-DCR without mucosal flap preservation in combination with silicone stent and steroid-soaked Gelfoam is a safe and highly successful procedure in patients with primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction.

A Comparative Study Between Anterior-Posterior and Superior-Inferior Flap Suturing Technique in Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy at our Tertiary Institution

The Nasolacrimal sac inflammation, also known as dacryocystitis, is frequently accompanied by nasolacrimal duct blockage at the confluence of lacrimal sac and duct. Treatment of choice for dacryocystitis is dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR), which can be done through external approach and endoscopic approach. The endoscopic DCR has distinct advantage over the external DCR as there is no facial scar& also it maintains the pump action. We have used flap suturing technique of endoscopic DCR in our study where in lacrimal sac medial flap is sutured to nasal mucosal lateral flap wherein patients were selected into either of the two groups such as Anterior-Posterior type (group A) and Superior-Inferior type (group B) of Flap suturing technique. Aim and objectives of the study were to compare the subjective and objective success rate between group A & B of flap suturing used in endoscopic DCR & to compare the success rate of our techniques with other techniques in literature. Our study was Duration based prospective observational study with a Duration of one year from June 2021 till June 2022 with study population comprised of patients in age group of 20 to 70 years, with complaints of watering of eye (epiphora) attended ENT Department of our institute during this one year. Study population comprised of Total of 86 patients (100 eyes) of which 45 patients (51 EYES) underwent anterior- posterior flap suturing (Group A) and 41 patients (49 eyes) underwent superior- inferior flap suturing (Group B) technique of endoscopic DCR The mean age ± standard error of mean was 45.1765 ± 1.5 and 49.0816 ± 1.9 in group A & B respectively,which was not statistically significant (p value = 0.994). The male and female patients in group A & B was 27.45%,72.54% and 34.69%,65.30% respectively which was not statistically significant (p value = 0.434). At each follow‑up, subjective success rate was more in group A that indicated a better trend of success for that group. However, the difference in the success rate was not statistically significant.The objective success rate between the two groups were more or less similar & was not statistically significant. The subjective success rate in both Anterior-Posterior type (group A)and Superior-Inferior type (group B) of Flap suturing techniques of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy were more or less similar with regards to absence of epiphora but objective success rate with regards to the patency, were almost similar with a shift of trend from Group A to group B at 6 months follow up and we also found that complications in both the groups were very few, without statistically significant difference between them. In terms of success rate and complication,The endoscopic DCR with flap suturing technique found to be more or less similar with previous techniques of DCR described in the literature.

A simple and efficient technique for suturing and knotting during endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy

PURPOSE

This study evaluated the long-term outcomes of endoscopic suturing and knotting-dacryocystorhinostomy (eSK-DCR) without the use of a stent or mitomycin C.

METHODS

A prospective interventional case series was performed on patients with nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO) who underwent eSK-DCR at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center from October 2019 to December 2019. The surgeon sutured the lacrimal sac mucosa with the nasal mucosa by tying knots under endoscopic DCR. Subject demographics, preoperative data and postoperative data were collected, including clinical presentation, Munk score for epiphora, surgical indications, operation time, duration of knotting, number of knots, endoscopic ostium size, complications, and anatomical and functional success. Anatomic success was defined as patent ostium on lacrimal irrigation, and functional success was defined as subjective improvement in symptoms. Statistical analysis was performed by IBM SPSS software (Version 20.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

RESULTS

A total of 60 patients (71 eyes) underwent pure eSK-DCR. Of these, 95.0% (57/60) were females. The mean age of the patients was 54.7 years. The mean surgical time was 37.60 min, and the average time for each knotting was 2.86 min. Endoscopic evidence found that all patients showed patent ostium and normal healing of the flaps after 4 weeks. The Munk scores dropped significantly at 6 months postoperatively compared to preoperative scores (P < 0.0001). Although 4 patients (7 eyes) were lost to follow-up at the end of the 2-year period, the anatomical and functional success remained stable during the 2-year follow-up period (anatomical, 100%; functional, 87.5%). No serious complications were detected during the follow-up period.

CONCLUSION

Pure eSK-DCR is a simple and reliable therapeutic method for the management of NLDO. The surgical outcomes were good and remained stable beyond 6 months postoperatively.

Longitudinal randomized study to evaluate the long-term outcome of endoscopic primary dacryocystorhinostomy with or without silicone tube

OBJECTIVE

Dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) is indicated for the treatment of nasolacrimal obstruction with some authors suggesting the use of a silicone tube (stent) to maintain rhinostomy patency a long time. This study aims at comparing the results of endoscopic-DCR (En-DCR) with and without silicone stenting.

METHODS

A randomized prospective study was conducted from January 2013 to January 2018, following patients for up to 72 months. Sixty outbound patients suffering from chronic epiphora for primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction were simply randomized and assigned to En-DCR with "silicone stent tube" (SST) or "no silicone stent tube" (NSST) group. Data about the results of the two procedures were collected using Munk' and Ali' assessments. The results were statistically compared to evaluate the differences.

RESULTS

30 patients were in the SST group and 30 in NSST. In the SST group, the tube remained in place for 3-6 months (4.1 ± 1.2 months). The follow-up period was 12-72 months (48.3 ± 6.2 months). Success rates (Junk and Javed Ali assessments) were, respectively, 97% in SST and 90% NSST group, with no statistical difference (Student's test). On a long-term follow-up, SST patients had an increased risk of re-stenosis by 14 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results showed there were not benefit in using tube, in the opposite it increased risk of re-stenosis. Despite preliminary results, our data confirmed comparing the two methods that silicone tube should not be used.

Is Nasal Packing Necessary After Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy Without Stent and Mucosal Flaps Preservation?

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of nasal packing on the surgical success and postoperative complications of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (EnDCR) without using stents and mucosal flaps.

METHODS

The retrospective study comprised of 75 eyes of 65 consecutive patients undergoing EnDCR with the biting and removing technique. The patients were assigned to 2 groups depending on whether the biodegradable synthetic polyurethane foam was used or not (the packing group, 34 eyes; the nonpacking group, 41 eyes). At least 6 months after the EnDCR, the postoperative outcomes including anatomical and functional successes, and the postoperative complications such as synechia, granuloma, and bleeding were compared between the packing and nonpacking groups.

RESULTS

Synechia was lower in the packing group (23.5% versus 24.4%) but it was not statistically significant (P = 0.93). There were also no significant differences in the granuloma and bleeding complications between the 2 groups (respectively, P = 0.72, P = 0.08). The success rates of anatomical and functional reached 88% in the packing group compared with 82.9%, and 75.6% in the nonpacking group (respectively, P = 0.74, P = 0.76).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study findings suggest that both groups have no superiorities over each other in the surgical outcomes after the EnDCR. However, further randomized studies are recommended before the generalization can be made.

Factors involved in the success and failure of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy from our experience

INTRODUCTION

Chronic dacryocystitis is the condition secondary to permanent lacrimonasal duct stenosis (LNDS) that generates epiphora and recurrent conjunctivitis. Endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (EDCR) is a more natural route than the external route and offers higher success rates than the laser technique. We value this centre's experience in this procedure.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A retrospective review was carried out in our centre of the medical records of adult patients undergoing EDCR due to LNDS between 1995 and 2019. The minimum follow-up period required after surgery was 6 months.

RESULTS

Over 297 months, 167 EDCR procedures were performed on 156 patients, with an average age of 65.7 ± 11.6 years and a male/female ratio of 1/1.98. The functional improvement was 86%, with an anatomical success rate of 87%. Lack of clinical improvement statistically significantly correlated with the age of the patient and the time since onset of the LNDS, the presence of concomitant systemic (especially diabetes mellitus) or ophthalmological disease, the intraoperative finding of a thickened tear sac and absence of drainage of the tear sac when marsupialised. Longer-term stent carriers in the rhinostomy had poorer outcomes. There were no postoperative complications of interest.

CONCLUSIONS

EDCR is an effective and safe technique, based on stable anatomical references. Failure rate seems to be multifactorial and should be considered in older, multipathological patients, with a long duration of the condition.

Long-term outcome of transcanalicular microdrill dacryoplasty: a minimally invasive alternative for dacryocystorhinostomy

Background/Aim

Dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) remains the gold standard therapy for nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO), but is invasive and does not maintain the physiology of the lacrimal pathway. With transcanlicular microdrill dacryoplasty (MDP), there is a minimally invasive alternative surgical approach. This study aimed to present this modern lacrimal duct surgery technique and to evaluate its long-term success rate in a large study population.

Methods

The medical records of 1010 patients with acquired NLDO were retrospectively reviewed. Adult patients who had undergone transcanalicular MDP were included. The evaluation included the following parameters: age, gender, success rate, complication rate, obstruction grade and patient satisfaction. Long-term results regarding patient satisfaction and success rate were evaluated by a telephone survey. Only a complete resolution of symptoms was defined as success.

Results

793 eyes of 576 patients after transcanalicular MDP could be included in the study. The mean follow-up time was 8.7±0.9 years. Initial surgical success rate was 84.0%. At the time of the follow-up, 57.5% (n=229) still had full resolution of symptoms. The mean patient satisfaction with the procedure was 6.9±3.2 out of 10 points. Heavy bleeding occurred in two cases only (0.25%).

Conclusion

This is the first study to show the success rate of microendoscopic lacrimal duct surgery after such a long follow-up period and in such a large study population. Transcanalicular MDP is a minimally invasive technique with a very low complication rate and can be used as an alternative procedure before performing more invasive lacrimal duct surgery such as DCR.