Treating dry eye in the surgical patient: One doctor’s simple algorithm

Dry eye disease, or DED, has made the ultimate breakthrough into the consciousness of ophthalmology. We are now talking about DED as it relates to surgery. All eye surgery. Even retinal doctors are talking about the challenges that their patients face from DED and other ocular surface diseases around both retinal surgeries and the now ubiquitous anti-VEGF injections for age-related macular degeneration. Can you imagine? Retinal surgeons are talking about the need to treat DED. That is truly something big.At the recent American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting in New Orleans, the topic that dominated all others was the diagnosis and treatment of DED. Key opinion leaders among us stood before standing-room only crowds to talk about the kinds of things you and I have been chatting about here in Ocular Surgery News for a couple of years. The topic of greatest interest was diagnosing and treating DED in the setting of impending cataract or refractive surgery. That should not be too surprising, of course. It is the Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, after all.