Local anaesthetic endonasal endoscopic laser dacryocystorhinostomy: analysis of patients' acceptability and various factors affecting the success of this procedure.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Endonasal endoscopic laser dacryocystorhinostomy is now a well established, effective approach to relieve nasolacrimal duct obstruction. Whereas attempts have been made to comment on the efficacy of the procedure, no study has been conducted to evaluate the acceptability of this procedure by those at the receiving end, ie, the patients. An attempt has been made in the present study to critically evaluate the procedure from the point of view of patients' acceptability and also to evaluate certain factors which may influence the success rate of this procedure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-six eyes from 40 patients underwent endonasal endoscopic laser dacryocystorhinostomy, performed by the same surgeon, over a period of 15 months. Various aspects of the procedure were evaluated by patients by filling out a simple questionnaire (Figure 1). In addition to recording patients' views, success of the procedure was confirmed by performing a postoperative sac washout in the clinic. Patients were also subdivided according to their age, duration of symptoms and history of previous surgical intervention. The data were statistically analysed using chi-square tests with the Yates correction.
RESULTS: The percentage of patients who declared themselves completely cured was 65.22%. A partial resolution was felt by 23.91% of patients and no improvement was reported by 10.87% of patients. Forty-two out of the 46 eyes (91.3%) achieved anatomical success by the procedure, as shown by a postoperative sac washout performed in the clinic. Some of them, however, did not have complete resolution of their symptoms perhaps due to an additional factor of lacrimal pump dysfunction in these patients. During the procedure 60.86% of eyes felt no discomfort at all whereas 39.14% of eyes felt some discomfort at some point of time during the procedure (Table 1). When directly asked 86.12% of patients recommended the procedure (implying that the procedure had some good effect on their quality of life), 8.33% of patients did not recommend it and 5.55% of patients made no comments. Various factors affecting the success of this procedure were analysed (Table 2) and it was found that eyes which had no previous surgical intervention showed a complete cure rate which was significantly higher than that seen in eyes which had some sort of previous intervention (P = 0.0003); eyes with a short (<6 mths) duration of symptoms showed significantly higher success rates (P = 0.0098) in comparison to that shown by eyes with longer (>6 mths) duration of symptoms; and younger patients (<50 yrs) had a complete resolution rate much higher than patients over 50 yrs of age (P = 0.0309).
CONCLUSION: The present study clearly shows that endonasal endoscopic laser DCR is an effective procedure, well tolerated and recommended by the patients. Discomfort during the procedure is not a major problem. Younger patients, with no previous surgical intervention and with short duration of symptoms are likely to be benefited the most. Though success rates are higher with external DCR, endonasal endoscopic laser DCR offers certain advantages over the external approach while keeping the option of external DCR open, if needed at a later date.