Tear film and ocular surface alterations in chronic users of antiglaucoma medications

• Autor(a) principal: Baffa,Lina do Prado
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Ricardo,Jose Reinaldo da Silva, Dias,Ana Carolina, Módulo,Carolina Maria, Braz,Alexandre Martins, Paula,Jayter Silva de, Rodrigues,Maria de Lourdes Veronese, Rocha,Eduardo Melani
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-27492008000100004
• topic: Benzalkonium compounds/administration & dosage; Benzalkonium compounds/drug effects; Timolol/administration & dosage; Timolol/drug effects; Tears/drug effects; Optic/drug effects; Glaucoma/drug therapy; Dry eye syndromes; Indicators and reagents

PURPOSE: Tear film can be altered by chronic medications that may disrupt the equilibrium responsible for the functioning of the lacrimal gland and ocular surface. The purpose of this study was to determine if antiglaucomatous chronic treatment induced alterations in the tear film and ocular surface. METHODS: After informed consent, 21 patients using antiglaucomatous eye drops for more than 8 months and 20 age- and sex-matched volunteers without eye and systemic medications (control group) were enrolled. The data of ocular discomfort, fluorescein and lisamine green staining, tear film break-up time and Schirmer test were collected and compared by Student's t test. The impression cytology data were graded and compared by chi-square test. RESULTS: Patients chronically using antiglaucomatous medications presented with significant higher fluorescein staining (p=0.003), lisamine green staining (p=0.02) and lower TFBUT (p=0.001). The other comparedparameters, including impression cytology were similar between the treated and control group (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows that the tear film and the ocular surface are altered in patients under antiglaucomatous medications. In common, all medications were preserved with benzalkonium chloride. Efforts to minimize the adverse effects of chronic use of antiglaucomatous drugs must be addressed.