Dry eyes after laser surgery

Dry eyes is a very common medical syndrome that affects many people from all corners of the population, but mainly women are at risk in the post-menstrual period, people who watch digital screens for a long time, and patients after laser surgery. But the cause of dry eyes can be different, and at the root of it there may be local or systemic diseases that the doctor must identify and treat in order to solve the problem of dry eyes.

Tearing is important for the proper functioning of the eye and its health, with each blink a layer of tears is applied to the eyeball and provides moisture and a shield for smooth movement and proper functioning.

The human tear consists of four main parts which are secreted from the lacrimal glands scattered on the conjunctiva and the upper eyelid:

The aqueous part – provides constant moisture to the eye and washes away dirt particles.

The fatty part – provides a cushion for the smooth movement of the eyeball on top of the eyelids and prevents rapid evaporation of the tear fluid.

The mucous part – mucus that is secreted from the tear glands and its function is to hold the components of the tear together and spread them as a uniform layer on the eye.

The immune part – special proteins of the immune system (antibodies) whose role is to prevent infections in the eye tissue.

When the tears do not provide moisture and protection to the eye, we may feel the following symptoms:

1. Eye fatigue
2. burning sensation
3. Feeling of a foreign body or sand in the eye
4. itchy
5. redness in the eye
6. Blurred vision

Sometimes, dry eye can manifest itself with excess tears. This confusing phenomenon occurs due to the increased stimulation applied to the eye without the normal tear screen that shields the eye, the increased stimulation causes a signal to be sent through the nervous system and back to the tear glands around the eye to compensate for the lack of protection, the glands begin to produce emergency tears that wash the eye but these tears are the same in their composition to the healthy tear, and they consist mainly of the aqueous part and therefore evaporate quickly and do not add sufficient lubrication.

The causes of dry eyes can be many:

Environmental factors – strong winds, air conditioning or heating, watching digital screens, smoking, unbalanced diet and omega 3 deficiency.

Local diseases – blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids which blocks the tear ducts in the glands), ectropion or entropion (bulging out or inward of the eyelid).

Systemic diseases. Sjogren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus.

Medicines – diuretics, antihistamines, beta blockers and more.

Laser surgery – dry eyes after laser surgery is a common condition that many patients suffer from after LASIK surgery, according to statistics, about 50% of patients after laser surgery will experience dry eyes about a week after surgery. This percentage drops to %-40% after six months. Most people will no longer suffer from dry eyes after the recovery process from surgery is over.

The reasons for dry eyes after laser surgery can be either damage to the nerves in the eye which cause the eye to be less sensitive to stimuli and thus produce fewer tears, or due to a feeling of discomfort after the surgery which feels like dry eyes but is actually the recovery process.