Perioperative ocular parameters can help practitioners predict persistent dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery when identified at baseline and one month after surgery, a recent study found.

In otherwise healthy, treatment-naïve patients who underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery, researchers assessed the following 11 parameters: lipid layer thickness, meibomian gland dropout, tear break-up time, Oxford staining score, lid margin abnormality, meibum quality, meibum expressibility, meibomian gland orifice obstruction, meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) stage, Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and Schirmer test score

They gathered results at baseline and one and three months postoperatively. If a patient had an OSDI score greater than 12 at three months post-op, they were considered to have persistent dry eye symptoms. From there, the study used multivariate logistic regression to identify risk factors for those symptoms.

Of the 96 patients in the study, 31 had persistent dry eye symptoms at three months post-surgery. The study determined that high OSDI scores at baseline and low tear break-up time, low meibomian gland orifice obstruction scores and increased meibomian gland dropout at one month after surgery were all risk factors for persistent dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery.

“Clinicians should monitor these parameters before and after cataract surgery and consider careful and active dry eye management of patients with those risk factors for persistent dry eye symptoms after cataract surgery to improve dry eye symptoms and satisfaction of the patients after cataract surgery,” the study concluded.