Vision-Related Quality of Life Outcomes Following Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy in Chronic Dacryocystitis: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Purpose: This study aims to assess the vision-related quality of life in patients with chronic dacryocystitis (CD) and to investigate the impact of Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy (En-DCR) and the timing of the procedure on patients' quality of life.

Methods: A prospective cohort of 57 patients diagnosed with chronic dacryocystitis and scheduled for surgical intervention between August 2023 and December 2023 was initially recruited, with 54 patients completing the entire follow-up period. A control group consisting of 69 healthy individuals, matched for age and sex, was also included. The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25) was employed to compare the preoperative visual function questionnaire (VFQ) scores between the patient group and the control group.

Results: The study demonstrated that the VQF score in the preoperative patient cohort was significantly lower than that of the control group (p<0.0001). This disparity was primarily observed in the domains of eye pain (p=0.0053), distance activities (p=0.0251), role difficulties (p=0.0280), and mental health (p=0.0044). Postoperative VQF scores exhibited significant improvement compared to preoperative scores (p<0.05), with the change in VQF score showing a negative correlation with the duration of the disease (p<0.0001, r=-0.6634). Furthermore, no significant difference in VQF scores was observed between the catheterized and non-catheterized groups (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The study found that patients with chronic dacryocystitis experience a significant reduction in vision-related quality of life. The En-DCR procedure effectively alleviates symptoms in CD patients and enhances their vision-related quality of life, with earlier surgical intervention leading to greater improvements.