DCR IN PATIENTS WITH PATENT IRRIGATION

Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - Abstract: Volume 23(3) May/June 2007 p 173-178 Assessing Patients With Epiphora Who Are Patent to Syringing: Clinical Predictors of Response to Dacryocystorhinostomy.

These findings show that a negative single-drop Jones I test is predictive of symptomatic improvement after dacryocystorhinostomy surgery in patients with epiphora who are clinically patent to syringing. Lacrimal syringing and the Fluorescein Dye Disappearance Test, on their own, were not predictive of surgical outcome. Jones testing was of significant value in patients, but only when the traditional single-drop test was used.

So in situations where the patient is patent to syringing, DCR may still be of value if the single drop Jones I test is negative.