Über die Tränenproduktion bei Frühgeborenen, Neugeborenen und Säuglingen

Abstract

These investigations concerned 50 babies at the age of 34 to 47 weeks and two days. After local instillation of anesthetic drops, Schirmer-1-test was done. The average basal tear production was 5 mm +/- 3 mm in 5 minutes. This result was independent of absolute age of the babies, of birth weight, of the degree of maturity and of sex; there was no significant difference between right or left side.

The effect of prematurity on tear production

“…This could suggest that development of both ocular (conjunctival accessory lacrimal glands) and orbital (main lacrimal gland) tear secretors are not complete until two months after birth. However, Spiegler and Mayer, 10 found basal tear secretion to be independent of the absolute age of the babies, of birth weight, and of the degree of maturity, suggesting that the basal tear secretors in the conjunctiva may have completed their development during earlier gestational periods. However, Toker et al found that basal tear secretion correlated with birth-weight only, but not with post-conceptional age.…”

“…They made a correlation of tear production to body weight and compared this value to the data in adult persons: in this calculation, the prematures had a ten-times higher tear production than adult persons. 10 In the current study, we evaluated basal and reflex tear secretion of preterm and term neonates during the first two months of life serially, and determined the effect of birth weight and the postconceptional age on them.…”