[Statistical contribution on symptomatic dry eye].

Optical mark page reader forms to establish the case history were statistically evaluated with regard to the question 'Do you often have the feeling of having sand in the eye. Out of a total of 5,833 patients, 684 (11.7%) answered this question with 'yes'. Women stated with 15.1% relatively more often than men with 9.7% this clinical symptom. Of these 684 patients who subjectively complained of feeling of sand, 241 had an ophthalmological examination. In 92 patients (38.2%) the Bengal-Rosa 1% test was specifically performed due to the specific past history and the clinical symptoms stated on questions by the physician; in all cases signs of a keratoconjunctivitis sicca of different degree were found by slit-lamp microscopy, i.e., at least 4.5% keratoconjunctivitis sicca patients on our whole collective can be expected. The result of a thorough examination in these 92 patients (39 men and 53 women) with ophthalmologically confirmed keratoconjunctivitis sicca showed that in 25 (of 53) women there was an imbalance of the sex hormones. Besides degenerative diseases due to age, diseases of the connective tissue and those caused by an auto immune mechansim were found.