Failed Dacryocystorhinostomy – Dealing with care to succeed !

Most of the workers have reported a very good success rate of dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) operation. We have discussed the technique of re-operation in patients with previously unsuccessful DCR in our prospective study where 39 cases of failed DCR were operated. We have also determined the factors responsible for the failure of primary DCR and present the results of the management of failed cases. Out of 39 cases, twenty five patients were female. Cases were in age group from 12 to 55 years. The cause of failure in most of the cases in our series was due to the occurrence of scarring within the anastomosis. 92.4% have obtained a successful functional outcome. Thus our study emphasizes that failure of DCR is largely a preventable problem and in cases with a previous failed surgery, re-anastomosis can be easily performed with some modification to give satisfactory outcome in most cases.