Effect Of Plasma Punctal Occlusion On Dry Eye Management: A 6-Month Follow-Up Clinical Tria

For the sake of the clarity, this study conducted a clinical trial of 3 session's plasma occlusion of the punctum (POP) for dry eye disease (DED) management.

This study was a multicenter, randomized clinical trial conducted in the Vision Health Ophthalmic Clinic and Rheumatoid Clinic in Tehran, Iran, in 2023. 

Thirty-one patients were randomly selected to undergo plasma occlusion of the punctum (POP) in 3 consecutive sessions with a 1-week interval under local anesthesia, along with medications in the test group, and 30 cases underwent previous medical treatment in the control group. All patients suffered from signs of grade 3 or 4 of DED, as proven by visual parameters and dry eye indices and punctum sizes measurements before, 1 month, and 6 months after the POP procedure.

Between 61 participants, female cases are twice of males, with mean age of 49.95. The Punctal depth (PD) and outer punctal diameter (OPD) with optical coherence tomography (OCT) has decreased in test group, 37.79% and 45.33% respectively. The mean value of tear meniscus height (TMH) significantly improved 0.22mm in test group while control group mean improvement was 0.08. The difference of ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionnaire scores before and after the POP procedure in test group is 54.72 and in control group is 12.44. The schirmer test mean difference in test cases is 0.14 mm.

The potential of POP method as a noninvasive, safe, and efficient alternative to conventional occlusion methods is proved.