Page 20 - Revista SPORL - Vol 58. Nº1

TABLE 1
Patient characteristics: age, gender, primary diagnosis and laterality

Age group (years) PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS < 65 ≥ 65
Number of participants 103 155
Age (years) (median (range)) Female 45,9 (18-65) 74,5 (65-94)
Gender, no. (%) Male 87 (84,5) 116 (74,8)
Excessive tearing 11 (15,5) 39 (25,2)
Symptoms, no. (%) Recurrent eye inflammation with red eye 93 (90,3) 136 (87,7)
Recurrent eye infection with pus discharge 12 (9,8) 45 (22,3)
Laterality, no. (%) Painful swelling in medial canthus 6 (11.7%) 19 (12.3%)
Blurred vision 15 (14.6%) 37 (23.9)
Right 6 (5,8) 23 (14,8)
Left 41 (32,5) 67 (38,3)
Bilateral 47 (37,3) 68 (38,9)
38 (30,2) 40 (22,8)

TABLE 2 < 65 years ≥ 65 years
Type of surgery and subjective outcome after surgery 45 (35.7) 77 (44.0)
38 (84.4) 52 (67.5)
TYPE OF SURGERY AND REPORTED SURGICAL SUCCESS 17 (22.0)
External Dacryocystorhinostomy, no. (%) 4 (8.9) 8 (10.5)
Total resolution 3 (6.7) 98 (56.0)
Satisfactory improvement 81 (64.3) 53 (54.0)
No improvement 69 (85.2) 33 (33.7)
Transcanalicular Diode Laser-Assisted Dacryocystorhinostomy, no (%) 10 (12.3) 12 (12.3)
Total resolution 2 (2.5)
Satisfactory improvement
No improvement

with easy control, being hemorrhage the only complication TABLE 3
reported at the time of surgery. In the postoperative period, Cases submitted to surgical revision and type of
the three most frequent complications observed were: Dacryocystorhinostomy performed. EX-DCR - external
displacement of the stent (20 cases), canaliculitis/conjunctivitis dacryocystorhinostomy; TC-DCR – transcanalicular
in 7 cases, and synechiae in the middle meatus (5 cases). There dacryocystorhinostomy.
was no difference in terms of complications when comparing
the different age groups (p=0.777). Surgical revision (table 3) SURGICAL REVIEW
was necessary in 61 eyes (20.3% of procedures): in 36 eyes,
patients felt no improvement 3 months after surgery; in 25 Surgical review, no. (%) 61 eyes (20.3)
eyes, patients felt only partial improvement, in patients with
unilateral epiphora who opted for re-intervention. In 27 cases 1st procedure Review 29
initially submitted to TC-DCR, surgical revision was performed 27
with EX-DCR. However, in a very close number of cases, 29 EX-DRC TC-DCR 5
cases, the TC-DCR was used as a method of surgical review of 0
the external approach performed initially. TC-DCR EX-DCR

DISCUSSION TC-DCR TC-DCR
In this study, we evaluated the surgical success of
dacryocystorhinostomy reported by patients in different age EX-DCR EX-DCR
groups and comparing two different surgical methods: EX-DCR
and TC-DCR.Nasolacrimal duct obstruction is described in the fifth or sixth decade of life16. Similar findings were observed in
literature as being a more frequent pathology in females in the our study. Actually, comparing with a younger cohort, among
elderly patients we observed a greater number of women
with NLDO compared to men, similar to that observed in the
younger group, however, the proportion among women and
men seems to decrease with age. This can be justified by the

18 REVISTA PORTUGUESA DE OTORRINOLARINGOLOGIA E CIRURGIA DE CABEÇA E PESCOÇO