Prevalence of the dry eyes in the routine Outpatient department of Ophthalmology in a tertiary care centre

Introduction: Dry eye is a multifactorial disease of tears and ocular surface that results in symptoms of discomfort, visual disturbances and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface. Typical symptoms of dry eye syndrome are dryness, burning and a sandy-gritty eye irritation that gets worse as the day goes on. Symptom assessment is a key component of dry eye diagnosis - to the extent that many believe dry eye syndrome to be a symptom-based disease. Materials and Method: This study was carried out at ophthalmology Outpatient department of Sri Guru Ramdass Institute of Medical Sciences Amritsar. All the patients visiting for any ocular disease were screened for the presence of the dry eye over the period of 6 months i.e. June –Nov 2016. The patients were examined by Tear Film Breakup time and Schrimer's test. The patients found positive were then asked to answer a pre-validated questionnaire. Results: Intially, out of total 12144 patients 4572 patients presented with symptoms of dry eye. After screening with Tear film breakup time (TBUT) and schirmer's test, 2418 patients (19.91%) were diagnosed to be having actually dry eyes. Prevalence was found to be 12.55%in males and 7.41%in females. The association of various dry eye signs with smoking, anti arthritis treatment and antipsychotic drugs were found. Total 43.05% of the patients were involved in outdoor work. 19.72% were actively computer users, only 3.97% were using with screen while15.75% were using computer without screen. Conclusion: In our study due to more number of working women has highly influenced the result. The incidence of dry eye found highly variable depending upon the geography, living style as well as with the work profile of the patient complaining of dry eyes.