[Recent wounds of the lacrimal duct. Apropos of 262 cases treated as emergencies].

From 1982 to 1987, surgery was performed in emergency in 262 patients on lacrimal ducts at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Paris. The retrospective study of these cases and the comparison with the conclusion of the report of the French Society of Ophthalmology about the lacrimal apparatus (1980) can allow us a few conclusions. The first cause is assault in a 30 year old man, with a left lower canaliculus wound, and 20% of the cases an eye-penetrating wound. With the current use of safety belts, car-related injuries have become the second cause. Children are often bitten by family dogs. Upper lacrimal drainage wounds are associated in 40% of the cases with eye-penetrating wound, and must be repaired. Complications of intubation are: disappearance of silicone tubing 5%; loop retraction: 8%; slit canaliculus: 16% of the cases. This last complication becomes rarer with surgical experience. Concerning nasolacrimal intubation versus pig-tail probe, statistical results lead us to prefer the first technique.