Surgical Outcome of Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy with and Without Prolene Stent in Chronic Dacryocystitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Popularity of Endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy is rising over a conventional external dacryocystorhinostomy. One of the most frequent reasons for procedure failure is the closing of neo-ostium. To compare the surgical results of endoscopic Dacryocystitis operations with and without Prolene stents in terms of procedure success rates and postoperative complications. A randomized controlled trial of 2 years was carried out including 100 patients of chronic dacryocystitis. The cases were randomly split into two groups with 50 cases each in Endoscopic DCR with stent and without stent groups. The results, both the subjective and objective were noted. At the end of 3 months, the overall success rate was 88% and 90% in group with and without stent respectively with no significant statistical difference. 12% subjects had wound infection, 8% had granulations around the rhinostoma, 6% had synechiae, 10% had discomfort from the tube in stent group. In Group B (without stent), 16% had wound infection, 4% had granulations around the rhinostoma. As Endoscopic DCR without stent has equally good results and less complications as compared to with stent, we recommend endoscopic DCR without stent. Use of Stent should be reserved for special conditions like revision cases, common canalicular block, fibrosed lacrimal sac.