Laser treatment of lacrimal duct obstruction

  Overflowing tears caused by lacrimal obstruction is a common eye disease, which is common in rural areas of China where trachoma has not been well controlled. Although lacrimal duct obstruction is not considered a serious disease, the overflowing tears and pus it causes can affect work and life to varying degrees, in addition to affecting appearance, and may lead to a variety of other eye diseases and even damage vision. The traditional treatment methods are: lacrimal tract exploration, flushing, threading, tube placement, eye ointment injection, and lacrimal sac nasal anastomosis surgery, etc. These methods are either unsatisfactory, or heavy damage, painful and costly for patients. The advent of laser treatment for lacrimal obstruction has been a boon for patients with lacrimal obstruction, but many people are unfamiliar with it.  The principle of laser for this type of surgery is to use the thermal effect of laser, a certain intensity of laser beam to irradiate soft or bony tissues to produce coagulation, cutting and vaporization, to remove the lesion and to stop bleeding. The lasers available for lacrimal laseroplasty are of multiple types, such as: CO2 laser, Ar+ laser, Nd:YAG laser, Ho:YAG laser, KTP/YAG laser, but the delivery method, wavelength and mode of operation vary somewhat in the effectiveness of the procedure.  The treatment of lacrimal duct obstruction by using light-guided fiber conduction and emission laser is safe and reliable without rerouting, causing little damage, and not destroying the physiological function of the tear sac, which is in line with human physiological requirements. The laser emitted by the guiding fiber has good directionality and strong penetration, which directly acts on the obstruction site, producing thermal effect, coagulation, cutting and cavitation, and at the same time, the He-Ne laser of the guiding system also has sterilization effect, so as to effectively pass the obstruction, and after the operation, together with the drug flushing or the placement of support, can receive better results.  The diseases that are suitable for this surgery are: lower lacrimal duct and common lacrimal duct obstruction without acute inflammation, nasolacrimal duct obstruction and chronic dacryocystitis, failed lacrimal sac nasal anastomosis, physiological bone nasolacrimal duct obstruction.  The procedure is generally not done for: occlusion of the lacrimal duct, chemical tear duct burns, severe trachoma secondary to lacrimal duct obstruction, orbital trauma nasolacrimal duct obstruction with basically normal bone structure, nasolacrimal duct obstruction with a small tear sac, and nasolacrimal duct membrane in newborns.  Contraindicated are: tear duct stenosis, old traumatic tear duct dissection, severe disorder of bone structure after orbital and nasal trauma, nasolacrimal duct obstruction complicated by acute dacryocystitis, lacrimal duct obstruction due to lacrimal sac swelling, and after lacrimal sac removal.  The operation takes only a few minutes: after the lacrimal surface anesthesia, the quartz fiber that conducts the laser beam is inserted into the obstruction site, and the laser is emitted according to the pre-set energy and frequency, etc., until the fiber advances without obstruction and stops.  Post-operative treatment: injection of saline solution of 80,000 units of gentamicin and 2-5 mg of dexamethasone, injection of viscoelastic or ophthalmic ointment. To increase the efficacy, a support may be left in the tear duct and mitomycin C may be used once upon removal. Tear duct irrigation: there is no fixed pattern, in principle, it should be done more frequently at first (e.g. once every 2-3 days), and then the interval should be gradually extended.