Cataract & Dry Eye Syndrome - What you should know.

Cataract  and Dry Eye Syndrome - What You Should Know You just had cataract surgery, and now you have dry eyes.  Are these 2 things related? The following study wanted to investigate how many people undergoing cataract surgery already had dry eye disease before the surgery.  Knowing this can help better manage both the cataract surgery and dry eye disease for better outcomes.  Read on.

In 2011, William Trattler, MD conducted a study of 143 prospective cataract patients in 9 centers across the country. The patients were evaluated on: Tear Break Up Time (TBUT),  Schirmer’s scores, International Task Force (ITF) grading,  Cconjunctival staining and corneal staining.  The results were profound in the prevalence of dry eye in these cataract patients. 80.9% of the patients had a level 2, level 3 or level 4 dry eyes according to ITF guidelines. Yet only 22.1% had previously received a diagnosis of dry eyes. 62.9% had an abnormal TBUT of less than 5 seconds. 76.8% had corneal staining and 50% had central corneal staining. 21.9% of the patients had an abnormal Schirmer’s score of less than 5mm.  This study demonstrated that the prevalence of dry eye in cataract patients is very high and the recognition and subsequent diagnosis of the dry eye prior to referral of cataract surgery is very low.

Treat Your Dry Eyes Before Cataract Surgery. 

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