Ocular Surface Evaluation in Patients Treated with Pharmacological Treatment for Presbyopia

Background: Presbyopia is the progressive deterioration of accommodation and can be treated with a non-invasive pharmacological treatment using eye drops.
Objective: To evaluate the ocular surface integrity and the tear production in patients under pharmacological treatment for presbyopia using eye drops with the combination of pilocarpine and diclofenac during one year. Methods: A total of thirty eyes were included in this study. The evaluation of the influence of the pharmacological treatment of the ocular surface, Schirmer test and tear film break-up time, ocular surface staining and conjunctival impression cytology were performed at baseline (T0) and after one year (T1).
Results: For Schirmer test measurements there were no significant differences in patients under the pharmacological treatment (T=-0.56; P=0.58; n=30). Values of tear film break-up time increased significantly on T1, (T=-3.53; P=0.0047; n=30) indicating amelioration of the lachrymal film. For all stains the values on T1 were diminished, pointing out the amelioration of the corneo conjunctival surface. For conjunctival impression cytology, on T1, 33.3% of the samples suffered no changes, 23.3% of the samples got worst and 43.3% ameliorated their condition.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that the pharmacological treatment for presbyopia produced a corneo conjunctival surface amelioration and no changes in tear production after one year of chronically use.