Debridement-scaling, moist heat therapy, and gland expression in dry eye disease with meibomian gland dysfunction: a real world study Debridement-scaling, aplicación de calor húmedo local y expresión glandular en ojo seco con disfunción de glandulas de meibomio: un estudio a mundo real
Academic Article in Scopus
Background: Dry eye disease (DED) is a common and relevant ophthalmological disorder commonly classified as evaporative, aqueous deficient, and mixed phenotypes.The leading cause of evaporative DED is meibomian gland dysfunction, which can be improved through different therapeutic approaches. Materials and methods: This was an retrospective, observational, and analytical study. Patients of any gender and age in an ophthalmological academic center undergoing a triple physical therapy (debridement-scaling, moist heat application, and meibomian gland expression) for meibomian gland dysfunction were included. Corneal staining through the National Eye Institute scale, Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score, and tear break-up time (measured through slit-lamp biomicroscopy) were measured before and after 3 weeks of treatment. Results: One hundred and eighty-six eyes of 93 patients were included in the present study. Mean age was 54.9 years with a standard deviation of 17.23 and the female: male ratio was 1.38:1.00. Mean corneal staining score, mean tear break-up time, and mean OSDI score improved after treatment with statistically significant differences (p < 0.001). Triple physical therapy was easily applied in every patient and no side effects were detected. Conclusion: Triple physical therapy comprising debridement-scaling, heat application, and meibomian gland expression is safe and effective for Meibomian gland dysfunction. In addition, it is easy to implement in a real-world ophthalmological practice.
