The Changes of Tear Flow and Tear Film Stability after Antiglaucoma Drug Instillation

Yoon, Gil Joong; Kim, Dae Hyun

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate the changes in tear flow and tear filim stability in patients with long-term instillation of antiglaucoma drug.
METHODS
AND OBJECTS: We measured Schirmer test score and tear film break-up time (BUT) in long-term antiglaucoma drug instilling 60 patients (120eyes) who had been diagnosed with open angle glaucoma and in randomly selected 60 normal subjects (120eyes) from March 2000 to February 2001 at Chosun University Hospital. Obtained results were retrospectively analyzed with the age progression and sex of subjects, duration of instillation, number and type of drugs to find out correlations between these factors.
RESULTS
Average Schirmer test score and BUT were measured considerably lower in antiglaucomat drug instilled group compared to normal-subjects group (P<0.05, student t-test). Both measurements considerably decreased as age of patients and drug instillation time increased (P<0.05, ANOVA test). But number and type of instilled drugs had no considerable correlation to the obtained results (P>0.05, ANOVA test).
CONCLUSIONS
It should be predicted that the patients who had instilled antiglaucoma drug for a long time and who are also of old age may develop dry eye syndrome and eye surface problem. So special care should be taken with glaucoma treatment in such cases.