Endoscopic operation for the obstructed tears (DCR)

The tears are continiously produced by a gland in the upper eyelid, and keep the eye moist in order to protect it from abrasions and irritations. The tears are initially collected between the eyelids. From there, minute tubes direct them to a sac hidden behind the nasal bones (lacrimal sac). A wider tube named nasolacrimal duct drains the tears inside the nose, under the inferior turbinate. Inflammations, trauma or surgery can obstruct this sensitive drainage path from the eye to the nose. The eye continuously tears (epiphora), and sometimes the sac is infected, causing pain, swelling of the eye and purulent tears.

 

Endoscopic surgery offers a simple solution to the problem. With the help of the endosopes, the bone covering the lacrimal sac is removed from inside the nose, and the interior of the sac is widely opened, draining freely the tears into the nasal cavity. The operation is called Dacryo-Cysto-Rhinostomy (DCR), is done under local or general anaesthesia, usually with the help of an Ophthalmologist-Occuloplastic Surgeon, and does not require hospitalization.