Treatment of Obstructed Lacrimal Apparatus by Bowman's Probe Guided Lacrimal Bypass Surgery.

Lee, Jong Soo; Oum, Boo Sup; Lee, Ji Eun; Rho, Hwan Jung; Jeong, Geun

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 1999;40(7):1746-1754.
Published online July 1, 1999.

Treatment of Obstructed Lacrimal Apparatus by Bowman's Probe Guided Lacrimal Bypass Surgery.

Jong Soo Lee, Boo Sup Oum, Ji Eun Lee, Hwan Jung Rho, Geun Jeong

¹Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea.
²Junggeun Eye Clinic, Pusan, Korea.

누기폐쇄시 Bowman 소식자 Guide 하에 Jones 관을 이용한 Lacrimal Bypass Surgery

이종수(Jong Soo Lee),엄부섭(Boo Sup Oum),이지은(Ji Eun Lee),노환중(Hwan Jung Rho),정근(Geun Jeong)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical utility of lacrimal bypass surgery using Bowman's probe In treatment of obstruction of the lacrimal apparatus. The lacrimal bone was penetrated between lacrimal sac and nasal mucosa through the incised caruncle with Bowman #0 probe. A Jones tube was Introduced over the probe into the nasal cavity and fixed at caruncle with non-absorbable suture material. Epiphora was completely resolved in 120 (96.8%) of 124 eyes for mean follow-up of 17.1 months. Only 4 eyes failed to reach resolution of epiphora. Postoperative complications were as follows. coverage of the tube with conjunctiva in 10 eyes (8.1%), recurrent migration of tube to the nasal cavity 7 eyes(5.6%), persistent chronic dacryocystitis 7 eyes(5.6%), nasal mucosal granulation 6 eyes(4.8%), septal touch by tube 6 eyes(4.8%), conjunctival granulation 3 eyes (2.4%), and tube extrusion to the conjunctiva 2 eyes (1.6%). However no clinically significant complication developed postoperatively. The above procedure has many advantage such as no operations scar, short operation time, no need of expensive instruments and simple procedure. Therefore, this procedure seems to be of value in treatment of obstruction of lacrimal apparatus.

Key Words: Bowman's probe;Lacrimal bypass surgery;Jones tube;Lacrimal apparatus