The Clinical Outcome of Silicone Tube Intubation According to Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction Sites by Dacryoscintigraphy

Purpose: To evaluate clinical outcome of silicone tube intubation in lacrimal passage obstruction according to the lacrimal passage obstruction patterns by dacryoscintigraphy. Methods: Fifty-nine eyes of 52 patients complaining of epiphora were divided into three groups pre-sac (group 1), intra-sac (group 2), and intra-ductal (group 3) types by dacryoscintigraphy. We confirmed the obstructive sites of lacrimal passage by probing with Bowman probe, and excluded all the cases of not passing lacrimal pathway or without the obstruction of lacrimal pathway. In the silicone intubation, a tie between both silicone tube was made at silicone silastic sheet instead of Mersilk. Results: The success was defined as maintaining the patent lacrimal passage with irrigation and disappearing of epiphora for at least 3 months. The success rate of the silicone intubation was 16 eyes of 17 eyes (94.1%) in group 1, 19 eyes of 23 eyes (82.6%) in group 2, and 14 eyes in 19 eyes (73.7%) in the group 3. The highest success rate of silicone intubation was pre-sac type and the lowest success rate was intra-ductal type by dacryoscintigraphy. There is no significant difference of success rate among three groups. Conclusions: Although it`s required the longer follow-up period and larger subjects to evaluate the efficacy of silicone tube intubation, it should be useful management of silicone tube intubation, especially at the cases of pre-sac obstruction by dacryoscintigraphy. J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 47(6):863-870, 2006