Dry Eye Disease among Pregnant Women at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kathmandu

Abstract

Pregnancy is characterized by many significant changes in a woman’s body which helps develop the fetus optimally. During pregnancy, there is marked maternal endocrine upregulation, hormonal profile modifications and interactions leading to dry eyes. Pregnancy causes most parts of a woman’s body to change, and the eyes are no exception. Dry eye disease is a common pregnancy problem that usually begins towards the end of the first trimester. Since, there is a dearth of literature on dry eye disease during pregnancy in Nepal, a study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of dry eyes disease among pregnant women and to find its association with socio-demographic characteristics and their gestation period, at Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital. A total of 84 pregnant women in different trimesters volunteered for this study. The upper and lower limits for estimated mean age were 26.67 years to 25.03 years at 95% confidence level. The prevalence of dry eyes was 89.3% by tear break up time test and 27.4% by Schirmer’s test respectively. The association between gestational age and dry eyes by Schirmer’s test was statistically significant.

Epidemiology and trends in the uptake of refractive error services in Harare, Zimbabwe: a hospital-based retrospective study

“…Consistent with the results of previous hospital-based studies in developing countries [15][16][17][18] , myopia had the highest prevalence. Contrarily, hyperopia was the most occurring refractive error recorded among rural Zimbabweans 7 .…”

Subjective Dry Eye Symptoms in Pregnant Women–A SPEED Survey

“…However, according to the SPEED score criteria, only 1.2% of pregnant women had subjective symptoms of dry eye (moderate dry eye score). A recent study, by Rizyal et al reported that dry eye prevalence among pregnant women varies between 27.4% and 89.3% depending on the clinical criteria like tear breakup time and Schirmer's test used for dry eye diagnosis [ 30 ]. In fact, in a hospital-based cross-sectional study of pregnant women, 40.8% of dry eye disease was diagnosed with clinical dry eye tests and dry eye questionnaire [ 31 ].…”

Terhességhez kapcsolódó szemészeti változások és a szülésvezetés módjának szemészeti kérdései

“…A szemszárazság jellemzően a terhesség első tri meszterének végén jelentkezik, előfordulása a gestatiós hetek előrehaladtával megnő, és a szülést követően még hónapokig fennáll. A szárazszemtünetek terhesség alatt gyakoriak, különböző tanulmányok a gravidák 30-80% ában igazolták, többségük azonban panaszmentes volt [5].…”

“…Ezen tényezők a kon taktlencseviselést megnehezítik és veszélyessé tehetik, mivel szaruhártyagyulladásra, súlyosabb esetben pedig szaruhártyafekély kialakulására is hajlamosíthatnak. A terhesség során jelentkező panaszok esetén a kontaktlen cseviselés átmeneti felfüggesztése javasolt [1,5].…”