Blocked Tear Ducts

[Chris]

Sarah is three years, three months old and has had blocked tear ducts since birth. She has had her ducts probed and irrigated three times. The third time she had Crawford tubes put in her tear ducts. We left them in for six months and she had surgery yesterday to have them removed.

Her doctor basically said there is nothing else for him to do if the Crawford tubes didn't work. I know compared to other health issues that blocked tear ducts is minor but she frequently has gooey eyes and very sore eyelids.

Does anyone have any experience with chronic blocked tear ducts? It appears that she will not outgrow this problem.

Chris

[Becky]

Justin had the same problem,last year the doc went in and rebuilt his tear ducts, he does still have some gooey stuff in them but mainly just in the morning, it really seemed to help him alot
Becky

[wrblack]

Well, once again, I find myself woefully ignorant. Let's hope this last probing with placement of Crawford tubes has worked. But, if it should turn out that it didn't work for Sarah, I'd question the doctor saying nothing else can be done. From www.aapos.org/pubresources/Nasolacrimal+Duct+Obstruction.htm
<<If Tear Duct Probing is Not Successful: In the vast majority of cases, a simple tear duct probing is successful in curing the problem of a blocked duct. For those children where probing is not successful, there are several alternative treatment options. One option is to repeat the probing, and insert a silicone tube in the tear duct. Leaving the silicone tube in place for a number of months may prevent the tear duct from scaring closed. This option is particularly helpful when the blockage is in the upper part of the tear duct system. Another option is to repeat the probing with a special probe that has a balloon at the end which can be inflated in the tear duct to stretch it open. This procedure is similar to the angioplasty procedure that is done to open blocked arteries in the heart. Finally, and infrequently, an actual surgical procedure may be needed to make a completely new drainage opening for the tear duct system.

Conclusion Although blocked tear ducts represent a very common problem, they can almost always can be completely corrected.

Prepared by the Public Information Committee of the American Association For Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus January 2002>>

Think what they're talking about and what we hope you won't need to look into is dacryocystorhinostomy or maybe even endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy. Believe I'd be looking for a good ophthalmology department at large medical center or teaching university hospital.
HTH,
Bob

[momofrussell]

Are you sure your little one doesn't have Blepharitis?? (Becky, I think maybe Justin too). Russell had clogged tear ducts and had them probed but was STILL geting goopy eyes and sore eye lids. I could have SWORN he had pink eye every week LOL. I kept calling our Ped and the nurse finally said, Uh, that isn't pink eye and we went to our Ped Opthomalogist who said Russell suffers from Blepharitis. Most don't know about it, but the goopy, crusty eyes and pink sore eye lids are a good indicator that they may have it. There is ointment you can get for it from an eye doc as well as making sure you take warm clothes a few times a day to keep it clean. Unfortunately because they get this goop and crap there, they are more prone to pink eye or secondary infections, something Russell tends to still get more easily then his sisters. He still gets the Blepharitis but not as frequent.

I included a link about it and you might want to ask about it.

parentcenter.babycenter.com/refcap/preschooler/phealth/pvision/66400.html


Good luck!

A.

[donnita]

Cassie's left tear duct is blocked a lot, her right one is blocked occasionally.

[Chris]

Thanks for all the replies. I forgot to mention that everytime she had her tear ducts probed, the doctor also used a balloon to stretch them. The crawford tubes were inserted last June for the purpose of stretching her tear ducts. Actually, her eyes have looked terrific for the past couple of days. The real test will be when she gets her next cold.

Chris

[gavinsmom]

My son is 8 and had some sort of tear duct surgery when he was very very young, and just last week I brought him back in and they sceduled him to go in Jan. 11th to have some sort of stints or something to help with the tearing. So my question is the Crawford tubes what he is going to do? Thanks Tiff

[Chris]

You can see the Crawford tube across the inside of the eyeball. It seems like it would bug the kid but Sarah didn't even seem to notice. We used the Crawford tubes to stretch Sarah's ducts. She actually had more tearing than normal.

It is an easy procedure but she still had a general anethesia.

Chris