title: Endoscopic holmium:YAG laser dacryocystorhinostomy.
abstract: The early results of the first 50 primary endonasal laser dacryocystorhinostomies in 49 patients performed with the holmium:YAG laser are presented. Overall, 35 (70%) were successful in relieving symptoms of nasolacrimal obstruction after a mean follow-up period of 4 months. This improved to 79% in the subgroup of patients who underwent intubation of the naso-lacrimal system. These results were similar to the results of a retrospective study of 67 patients undergoing conventional dacryocystorhinostomy in our unit. Conventional surgery was performed under general anaesthesia in all but 1 case and all were treated as inpatients, with a mean hospital stay of 2.3 days, whereas all but 1 of the laser group had their surgery under local anaesthesia and 46 operations (94%) were performed as an outpatient procedure. Surgery was significantly quicker with the endonasal laser technique and 90% of patients questioned found this technique to be entirely acceptable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sadiq
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Hugkulstone
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Downes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003608:Dacryocystorhinostomy; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications; D053685:Laser Therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome