Balloon dacryoplasty for the treatment of lacrimal duct obstruction
Atkova E.L., Yartsev V.D., Reznikova L.V.

Eye Diseases Research Institute, Moscow

Currently, minimally invasive procedures are being actively studied in dacryology, in particular, in the treatment of stenoses of the horizontal part of the lacrimal ducts. However, balloon dacryoplasty (BD) without subsequent intubation was not studied as an independent treatment method of the lacrimal duct obstruction.
Aim: to evaluate the efficiency of BD in treatment of the lacrimal duct obstruction.
Patients and Methods. 21 BD procedures were carried out on 18 patients with the lacrimal duct obstruction. All patients underwent standard ophthalmologic and dacryologic examinations, which included subjective evaluation of epiphora using Munk score, Schirmer and Norn tests, dye disappearance tests, lacrimal duct irrigation, probing of presaccal part of the lacrimal ducts, nasal endoscopy, lacrimal canaliculus endoscopy, lacrimal scintigraphy, multispiral computed tomography using original method. BD was carried out using MedIng original catheter (“Nanomed”, Russia) with balloon diameter of 2 mm. Lacricath inflation device (FCI, France) was used to pressurize the balloon with liquid. Monitoring of the effectiveness of treatment was carried out after 1 week, 1, 3 and 6 months. Clinical result was characterized as a full recovery, improvement or recurrence. Treatment results of this patient group was compared with treatment results of an identical patient group that underwent recanalization of lacrimal ducts with intubation in 2013-2014.
Results. Full recovery was observed in 10 cases (47,6%), improvement - in 8 cases (28,1%) and recurrence – in 3 cases (14,3%). Clinical efficiency of the lacrimal duct BD was comparable to BD with intubation, when compared by their Munk score and lacrimal scintigraphy results. Absence of complications associated with intubation can be considered as an advantage of the common canaliculus BD.

Key words: dacryostenosis, lacrimal duct, balloon dacryoplasty, epiphora.
For citation: Atkova E.L., Yartsev V.D., Reznikova L.V. Balloon dacryoplasty for the treatment of lacrimal duct obstruction // RMJ. Clinical ophthalmology. 2017. № 3. P. 131–134.