How is neonatal dacryocystitis diagnosed and treated?

  I hope that more and more anxious and confused first-time parents will read this article to reduce unnecessary worries and to understand the disease thoroughly, so that they can cooperate scientifically with their doctors and work together to complete the treatment process and win the best results.  Neonatal dacryocystitis is an increasingly common disease of the lacrimal tract in infants and children. The disease is characterized by tearing in one or both eyes after birth, with a lot of eye discharge, and after the application of antimicrobial medication drops, there will be improvement but recurrent episodes that do not heal.  Many parents blame themselves for not taking good care of their children, but in fact, this disease is caused by secondary infections that occur after birth because the tear duct remnants have not yet receded and the tears cannot flow away from the tear ducts normally, resulting in the retention of tears in the tear sacs. The more serious cases of acute lacrimal sacculitis spread, the formation of orbital cellulitis, very easy to form cavernous sinus thrombosis, invasion of the brain, the formation of meningitis and other serious consequences, so the newborn lacrimal sacculitis need to be actively treated.  The symptoms of lacrimation are bound to occur, but the time of occurrence is different for each infant. The core of the treatment of this disease is to unblock and unblock the lacrimal duct. Medication can only control the secondary inflammation, not the root cause. Some infants have a tendency to heal themselves within three months of birth, and can heal with proper tear sac massage and tear duct inflammation care. In general, those who do not improve after 90 days of life need to go to the hospital for lacrimal duct irrigation, i.e., under surface anesthesia, parents cooperate to control the child in a flat position, limiting head rotation, and the nurse uses a non-invasive lacrimal probe to probe into the lacrimal duct, and then uses the irrigation solution to rupture the lacrimal duct remnant membrane with pressure to release the obstruction. This is a painless, non-invasive, and non-painful procedure that is the province of the nurse. The child’s crying is probably due to the restricted position or the swelling of the eye during the procedure.  In cases where lacrimal flushing still does not solve the problem, lacrimal tract exploration is considered. This is an invasive procedure and can be done under local anesthesia. Tear duct probing is the use of an iron probe to pierce the entire length of the tear duct and directly disrupt the tear duct remnant membrane to open the tear duct. The operation under local anesthesia is performed in the outpatient nurse, the advantage is to avoid the risk and inconvenience of inpatient general anesthesia, the disadvantage is that the success rate is low, easy to form a false tract, forming an obstacle to the later treatment; easy to form tearing of the tear dots, secondary adhesions of the tear duct mucosa damage; tear sac breakage easy to form inflammation in the periorbital tissue spread to form cellulitis, etc. These factors affecting the success are essentially due to the crying and shaking of the child, the contraction of facial muscles to form non-physiological local tissue deformation ectopic, increasing the accuracy of the operation, in addition to the psychological stress of the operator is also a factor affecting the ultimate success rate. The biggest disadvantage of outpatient lacrimal tract exploration is that there is no backup means of implementation, such as lacrimal laser, lacrimal intubation, lacrimal stent, etc. Therefore, failed outpatient lacrimal tract exploration still requires inpatient surgery under general anesthesia to resolve the problem.  It is not recommended to perform lacrimal tract exploration under local anesthesia. Due to technological advances in the field of anesthesia, general anesthesia does not cause the common fear of affecting the neurological development or disorders of the brain, and safety has been greatly improved, so that many procedures can be performed under general anesthesia. By performing lacrimal access under general anesthesia, many of the disadvantages of outpatient local anesthesia are avoided, and the success rate is greatly improved. The recovery of the child is fast and the inflammatory reaction is light, and more importantly, the crisis of the psychological shadow level of the child, which is commonly neglected in China, is avoided, so that the physical and mental health of the child is well ensured.