[Clinical investigation of extrusion rate and other complications associated with Punctal Plug F].

PURPOSE

To investigate the effectiveness, extrusion rate and other complications of Punctal Plug F (PPF) compared with Punctal Plug (PP), Super-Flex plug (SFP) and SuperEagle plug (SEP).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

This study involved 31 eyes of 24 dry-eye patients treated with PPF at the dry-eye clinic of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan. Intracanalicular migration rate, extrusion rate, granulation rate, accumulation of soft whitish material and enlargement of punctum size after punctal-plug extrusion were investigated and compared with previously published results of PP, SFP and SEP.

RESULTS

No migration was observed in the PPF cases at the time of insertion. The extrusion rate was 43.5% during follow-up periods. The average time to extrusion was 158.2 +/- 175.7 (mean +/- SD) days, and the time until 50% of plugs were extruded was 234 days, longer than that in the SFP cases (p = 0.0012). Granulation was seen in 4.3% of the eyes, but the frequency was lower than in the PP(19%, p = 0.015) and SEP cases (34.5%, p < 0.0001). No soft whitish material was seen around the PPF-cases' plugs yet significant, post-extrusion punctum size (mm) enlargement (0.78 +/- 0.14) was observed compared to pre-insertion(0.61 +/- 0.18, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Our findings show that insertion of the PPF was easy and without intracanalicular migration, harder to extrude, similar to the PP, yet less susceptible to granulation formation compared with the PP.